Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto is back in action when he challenges the undefeated Austin Trout for his WBA “Regular” Light Middleweight title.  The fight is scheduled to take place in Madison Square Garden, where Cotto figures to have the massive support of the crowd on his side.

Many were surprised when Miguel Cotto picked Austin Trout as his next opponent inside of a much more lucrative rematch with Manny Pacquiao.  The causal boxing fan had probably never heard of Trout but the fighter out of New Mexico has slowly been working his way up the junior middleweight rankings.  Trout is undefeated and entering his prime at the perfect time for the biggest opportunity of his professional boxing career.  Trout won the vacant WBA belt when he went into Mexico to beat Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s older brother Rigoberto Alvarez.  While Rigoberto is not on the same level as his younger brother, it was still impressive that Trout was able to go into Mexico and win a clear unanimous decision.  Trout is not the biggest puncher but combines good technical ability with very quick hands and is usually able to outbox the opposition.  It will be interesting to see what his game plan is in attacking the veteran Cotto.   

There is really not much left to say about Miguel Cotto at this point of his career as the Future Hall of Famer has pretty much accomplished everything he possible can.  Sure he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquaio, but those two fighters are clearly the best two of the generation and Cotto was more than competitive in both fights.  I think if you ask Cotto what was the most important fight of his career was he would easily say the rematch against Antonio Margarito.  The feeling around that fight was if he could exact revenge on the man who cheated against him and unfairly won his career would be validated.  Cotto got the win and the revenge he so desperately wanted and I think now he is fighting for the love of the sport.  Showtime did an All Access build up for the Cotto-Trout fight and it was very interesting seeing Cotto talk about how he sees the light at the end of the tunnel for his boxing career. 

Prediction:  Before the odds were announced I figured Cotto would probably be around – 450 or something along those lines.  I was astonished to see that Cotto was only at -250 and that made me want to jump all over that.  But then it got me thinking and then I watched the All Access on Showtime and now I know why the line is so low for Cotto.  At some point in every boxers career there just comes a time when they can’t do what there used to doing in a ring anymore and I think that time is now for Cotto.  He went through hell in that first match against Margarito and has never been the same in my eyes.  Sure he gave Mayweather Jr. arguably his most competitive fight of his career, but “Money” is no spring chicken either.  The problem has been Cotto’s tendency to fade in the later rounds and against a much younger and fresher fighter that could be a big problem for Cotto.  Numbers don’t lie and something is fishy about this line and that is making me pick Trout to either win in a late stoppage or get a decision.