Emanuel Steward Talks Pacquiao, Margarito Rematches for Cotto
Emanuel Steward has been credited with salvaging Miguel Cotto’s career. While Cotto’s training and talent might have had something to do with it, there’s little doubt that working with the Hall of Fame trainer had a major role in his defeating Yuri Foreman for the WBA junior middleweight title at Yankee Stadium in early June.
The career of Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) was on the brink of collapsing after he suffered knockout losses to Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao in recent fights, but Steward was able to help Cotto develop a game plan to neutralize the hand speed and lateral movement of Foreman. Even without the knee injury that caused so much chaos and confusion in the ring and ultimately led to Foreman’s demise, it appeared that Cotto was in firm control against Foreman.
Cotto now has plenty of possibilities for his next fight after turning his career around against Foreman. Two of the most intriguing options would be rematches against Pacquiao and Margarito. In particular, Cotto has been talked about as a replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. if a deal can’t be reached in time for Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. to fight in November. The main difference is that this fight would be fought at the light middleweight limit of 154 pounds instead of the catch weight of 145 pounds that was used in their previous fight.
Steward believes that the difference in weights would be one reason that a rematch between Cotto and Pacquiao could end very differently. Speaking to AOL Fanhouse earlier this week, Steward said that fighting at 154 pounds would be a benefit to Cotto as it would allow him to fight at a more natural weight while Pacquiao would have to gain weight - possibly robbing him of some of his world-class speed. In conversations with Steward, Cotto has said that it was Pacquiao’s speed - not coming down in weight - that was the main problem.
While Steward sounded like he didn’t fully believe that Cotto would admit that the weight was a problem, he also said that Cotto was a “different fighter” than when he faced Pacquiao last November. Steward also seemed confident that he could help Cotto solve the problem of Pacquiao’s hand speed, which helped him land at will late in the fight after Cotto began tiring, leading to the fight eventually being stopped in the 12th round.
According to Steward, getting Cotto ready and trained to face Pacquiao’s legendary hand speed for a rematch against Pacquiao “would not be a problem with me this time because I specialize in fast sparring partners. That's something that I insist on. I've never had a fighter come back at the end of a round and tell me that 'I've got a problem because I can't handle his speed,’ you know?”
Steward also said that a rematch for Cotto against Margarito would be intriguing. Margarito stopped Cotto in the 11th round of their bout for the WBA welterweight title in July 2008, but Margarito has since been forced to serve a year-long suspension for using illegal hand wraps during his loss to Shane Mosley in 2009. This led many people to question Margarito’s power and some of his previous knockouts - including his defeat of Cotto.
However, Steward is not one of the people who questions Margarito’s ability. Having observed him train and fight in the past, he’s convinced that Margarito’s power in the past had less to do with any illegal hand wraps and more to do with natural talent and hard work. He said that Margarito is always in “unbelievable condition” and would again be a tough match-up for Cotto.
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