Canelo Álvarez vs. Miguel Cotto: Revisiting the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico Showdown

On Saturday, September 14, legendary Mexican Canelo Álvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) will take on the dangerous, unbeaten Puerto Rican, Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) for Alvarez’s WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight titles. This world title bout will be the headline fight at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas and be promoted by Canelo Promotions – in association with Matchroom Boxing. In preparation for fight night, BFW is taking you back to the last time Canelo faced off against a Puerto Rican opponent and that was on November 21, 2015, when he clashed with Miguel Cotto for The Ring, TBRB and vacant WBC middleweight titles at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Canelo Álvarez Defeats Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas

Canelo vs. Cotto Fight Recap

It was a fight that saw both boxers edge on the side of caution, with Cottio looking to work off his jab – with Canelo landing the more eye-catching punches. Cotto seemed more intent on boxing and moving, but Álvarez consistently landed hurtful body shots at his opponent. Both fighters showed grit and took the best shots from their opponent, especially Cotto who showed just how strong his chin was.

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The more accurate and hurtful punches came from Canelo and this was seemingly the deciding factor on the judge’s scorecards, as all three saw Canelo as the winner. The official scores were 119-109, 118-110 and 117-111. Many ringside commented that the fight was closer, but watching it back, Canelo was the deserved winner and outlanded his opponent. According to Compubox, the Mexican landed 32% of punches thrown while Cotto landed 21%.

What Happened Next?

After the loss to Canelo, Cotto only returned almost two years later – to comfortably outpoint Yoshihiro Kamegai. The last bout of his career came at the end of 2017 as he lost by a unanimous decision to Sadam Ali. Following that defeat to Ali, he called time on a 17-year professional career.

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Canelo defeated Cotto and then won his next free fights against Amir Khan, Liam Smith and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. before his memorable first fight with Gennadiy Golovkin.