Roach talks, but Cotto says he isn’t listening

by Norm Frauenheim on 5 November 2009

Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach is talking. But Miguel Cotto isn’t listening. At least, Cotto says he isn’t.

Cotto dismissed Roach’s old-school attempt at some modern gamesmanship Thursday night during a conference call from Las Vegas where the Puerto Rican is in the final stages of training for his 145-pound showdown on Nov. 14 with Pacquiao at the MGM Grand.

Roach has said a lot. Roach has said that Pacquiao will knock out Cotto in the first round. He said Cotto isn’t the same since losing to Antonio Margarito. He said Cotto isn’t as confident. He said Cotto is easier to hit. Roach has almost – again, almost — said enough to make Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sr. jealous.

But Cotto made it sound as though he listens to Roach about as much as anybody ever listens to the senior Mayweather’s trash-talking poetry, which is to say not at all.

“Forget about Freddie Roach,’’ said Cotto, who holds the World Boxing Organization’s welterweight title, yet is a decided, 3-1 underdog against Pacquiao. “The thing that Freddie Roach can do is train Manny the best he can. He can’t go into the ring and fight Miguel Cotto.

“You know, he can just train Manny the best he can. He can make picks or say that he thinks Manny will win the fight. But at the end of the road, it’s just Manny and Miguel Cotto. No matter what kind of picks or what Freddie Roach says, I have a very strong mind. This psyche game, I’m not going to follow that.’’

Roach has said that he thinks Cotto is susceptible to a game that has been around as long as there have been minds because he has not recovered from the distress suffered in the TKO loss, his only one, to Margarito in the summer of 2008..

Nobody knows whether Margarito’s gloves were locked-and-loaded with the same plaster-like substance found before his subsequent loss to Sugar Shane Mosley. But that doesn’t matter to Roach, who is playing head games in an attempt to exploit any doubt — suspected, real or lingering. That’s one of the fascinating aspects to a fight with anticipation spiked with as much intrigue as any major bout in many years.

In the way he talks and looks, Cotto is tough, tough to read. Pacquiao looks as if he were born to smile, which makes him easy to like. But Cotto seems to smile about as often as he blinks, which makes him easy to fear. Yet, Roach is talking as though he has detected a chink in the armor that surrounds Cotto’s fortress of a personality. Maybe he has, or maybe Roach is just probing.

One thing is certain: There wasn’t any vulnerability evident in Cotto’s words or tone Thursday. There’s been a lot of publicity about Pacquiao and how he is poised to take a significant step in an ascent to the kind of greatness captured by a few fighters.

Pacquiao is on this week’s cover of the Asian edition of Time magazine. There must have been no room for the Chinese premier this week. He also appeared – and sang — on Jimmy Kimmel’s show a few late-nights ago.

If Cotto has been reading, watching, listening or feeling overlooked amid all the attention on Pacquiao, he isn’t saying. Or maybe he’s just been too busy in his bulldogged devotion to the only craft he knows.

“I’m a boxer, you know,’’ he said. “I’m not an artist. I’m not a singer. I’m just a boxer. I have to be focused on the things I have to do on the night of the 14th. And that’s the reason I’m here today.’’

With a victory, Pacquiao also would become the first to win a major title in seven different weight classes. It looms as just another piece in the Pacman Phenomenon. But if that’s still a puzzle now, Cotto says it will be bigger one after Nov. 14

“If he thinks he is going to reach his seventh title in a seventh different division, he picked the wrong moment, the wrong fighter and the wrong opponent,’’ Cotto said. “If he thinks he is going to do it with Miguel Cotto, he is wrong.’’

Cotto also has no patience for speculation that he was trampled and left damaged like road kill by the beat-down delivered by Margarito. Boxing experts are like political pundits. All have lots to say, but none hold a title or an office

“I can go to a doctor and talk to him about how he has to do his work,’’ said Cotto, who came back from Margarito with an easy victory over Michael Jennings and bloody, difficult one over Joshua Clottey. “He knows how to do his work. I know how to do my work. I am pretty recovered from the Margarito defeat. I showed that to the world in my last two victories. I don’t have anything to say about that.’’

He doesn’t have to. Roach has already said plenty.

Looking for a savior, or maybe some silence

Chad Dawson promoter Gary Shaw sounds as if he is hoping for a knockout, a silencer, Saturday night of Glen Johnson in an HBO-televised rematch of Dawson’s light-heavyweight victory by decision in St. Petersburg, Fla., about 20 months ago. Shaw is annoyed at Johnson’s repeated complaints about the judging, unanimous in Dawson’s favor.

“Every article I read from Glen is about the wrongs in boxing, like he’s the savior,’’ Shaw said in a conference call before Saturday’s opening bell in Hartford, Conn., near Dawson’s hometown of New Haven. “Chad Dawson won the fight in the eyes of all the officials. And it was in Florida. I want to remind everybody that the fight was in Florida.’’

Johnson, a Jamaican living in Miami, interrupted, saying he wasn’t trying to save anything other, than perhaps a few dollars.

“I am not the savior of boxing,’’ Johnson said almost as if he wishes there was one. “I’m sorry for your thoughts, because that is not true. Everybody involved boxing knows that boxing is very troubled by crooked judges and everything else. ‘’

In a give-and-take that might prove to be as entertaining as the fight itself, Shaw countered by saying: “Then, you should go out and have your promoter and manager talk about the crooked judges. I don’t think it was crooked. I have seen plenty of robberies. This is not a robbery. I’m sorry. It just gets to me after a while.’’

It will get to Shaw for a lot longer if Dawson can’t land the savior for a knockout of the 40-year-old Johnson.

NOTES, QUOTES

· Despite the arrest of Phoenix promoter Peter McKinn a few weeks ago on charges rooted in a five-year-old feud involving allegations about a bad check for $5,000 and resurrected as a pawn in Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigation of city politicians, pieces for an Arizona comeback are falling into place. Julio Cesar Chavez will open a boxing-themed bar-and-restaurant Tuesday, Nov. 10, in suburban Mesa. The facility, named after the Mexican great, includes a 1,700-seat arena, which is expected to be a regular site for cards.

· And Bob Arum promotes Pacquiao and Cotto. When asked if it was difficult to promote both fighters in a major bout, he said “My job is to put fighters into fights where they can make the most money.’’ Enough said.

Source: http://www.15rounds.com/roach-talks-but-cotto-says-he-isn%E2%80%99t-listening-110609/