Puerto Rican boxing legend Miguel Cotto will make his final walk to the boxing ring on Saturday night, when he takes on Sadam Ali to defend his WBO junior middleweight title on HBO World Championship Boxing.
The 37 year old Miguel Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) has seen better years, but the aging veteran who promised to retire after his December bought against Sadam Ali wants to go out with a bang and put on an impressive win against a younger dangerous opponent.
Cotto has fought a Who’s Who list of opponents, including Shane Mosley, Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Sergio Martinez, Canelo Alvarez to name a few.
During the later stage of his career he hooked up with trainer Freddie Roach and had a career revival in the 154 and 160 pound divisions winning world titles in both. Roach trained Manny Pacquiao to beat Cotto at 147 pounds and had some bad blood before but both became good friends and squashed their differences to create one of the best working relationships in the sport
Sadam Ali (25-1, 14 KOs) at 29 is much younger than Cotto, This will be the second time Ali will fight for a world title, the first time he fought for a WBO belt was at 147 pounds when lost for the first time in his career to Jessie Vargas by a 9th round TKO.
Ali is a natural welterweight but took the opportunity to fight Cotto at 154 pounds because it would mean facing a legend and fighting for another world title giving him the opportunity to become a world champion for the first time in his career.
Miguel Cotto vs. Sadam Ali airs live on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO World Championship Boxing.
