José Miguel Cotto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
José Miguel Cotto (born June 22, 1977) is a professional lightweight boxer from Caguas, Puerto Rico. He is the brother of Miguel Cotto, another boxer. Cotto, who has boxed for most of his career under the shadow of his brother, trains at Bairoa Gym in Caguas. In 1995, he participated at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and won a silver medal. A year later he represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics, where he was defeated in the first round.
On July 25, 2003, Cotto was supposed to fight in Phoenix, Arizona. However, his opponent had trouble getting a license to fight, as he had been knocked out recently and was serving a 45 day suspension from another state. The Arizona boxing commission was not able to find Cotto an opponent in time and the fight got cancelled.
On September 5, at his native Caguas, Cotto finally returned to action, with a first round knockout win over Johnny Walker. On December 19, he fought Anthony Martinez in Aibonito, winning by an eighth round knockout.
Cotto moved to Phoenix early in 2004. On April 14 of that year he stopped Mexican Luis Lizarraga at two minutes and thirty seven seconds of the first round to win the minor, International Boxing Council title.
On August 6, he beat former world champion Al Kotey by a ten round unanimous decision at San Juan. On August 20, 2005, Cotto would have boxed Manuel Medina, with a world title shot at stake. But he was not able to make the fight's weight limit and the fight was cancelled.
On January 20, 2006, Cotto knocked Ubaldo Hernandez out in seven rounds at Mayfield, California. On April 8, he received his first world title try, losing a twelve round decision to Juan Díaz as part of a Pay Per View undercard, for the WBA world Lightweight title.
Cotto has won 27 bouts as a professional, with 1 loss and 19 wins by knockout. He remains ranked as the number 6 world title challenger in his weight division by the IBF.
