07.11.07 Cotto, Trinidad quite a contrast

By Robert Morales

[IMAGE1]Miguel Cotto celebrates winning his welterweight championship fight against Zab Judah on June 9. The referee stopped the fight in the 11th round. Cotto will defend his title against "Sugar" Shane Mosley on Saturday in New York. (Nick Laham / Getty Images)
Miguel Cotto's stature in his native Puerto Rico has risen to tremendous heights. He is inarguably the best pound-for-pound fighter from the island today. Any time he fights in New York City, which has a large Puerto Rican population, his supporters come out in droves.

The question is, with a personality that borders on bland, will Cotto ever find his way into the hearts of his followers the way countryman Felix "Tito" Trinidad Jr. did during his heyday?

Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions, on Saturday will co-promote Cotto's defense of his welterweight belt against "Sugar" Shane Mosley of Pomona at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

De La Hoya lost a majority decision to Trinidad in September 1999 in Las Vegas. For the past several years, De La Hoya has lived in Puerto Rico with his wife Millie. De La Hoya believes that, even today, in the twilight of his career, Trinidad remains Puerto Rico's favorite.

"Trinidad is still the most popular Puerto Rican fighter," De La Hoya said last week from Puerto Rico; he is Mosley's promoter. "Obviously, Cotto, with what he's accomplished, he's made a name for himself here on the island. But Trinidad continues to be the most loved Puerto Rican fighter on the island."

When Trinidad, one of the great welterweight champions of the past 50 years, enters a ring there is nothing but electricity. His fans go wild in the stands. With tremendous animation, he wags his gloved fist into the camera and cries over and over again, "Viva Puerto Rico."

"I think a lot has to do with personality," De La Hoya said. "Trinidad was an outgoing, very in-with-the-people type of fighter. He was always smiling and signing the autographs. And nothing bothered him. He was a very likeable guy. I think that's been the difference."

Cotto is likeable. One would be hard pressed to find a nicer guy in the sport. But whereas Trinidad has an unconstrained personality, Cotto's could be considered withdrawn.

Mosley is of the mind that Cotto's standing in Puerto Rico is in the neighborhood of Trinidad's. But like De La Hoya, Mosley said Trinidad's charisma is the proverbial tiebreaker.

"Trinidad had a tremendous kind of personality where the Puerto Rican fans really loved the way he grabbed them," said Mosley, who fought in Puerto Rico as an amateur and knows all about the passion of its boxing fans. "His personality, it's `Viva Puerto Rico.' Cotto is a little bit more quiet and not as open as Trinidad."

Cotto is a lot quieter than Trinidad. And he knows it.

"That's my personality. I can't do anything with that, you know?" Cotto said, "I'm a much more shy person than Trinidad and that's the way I do it."

That's the way his promoter, Bob Arum, wants him to continue to do it.

"Miguel is Miguel," said Arum, who is co-promoting Saturday's fight under his Top Rank Inc. banner. "He's a great, great fighter. He's a great young man. We who are close to him know that he has a great personality. I don't want him to be a phony. I don't want him to be what he isn't."

Arum scoffs at the notion that Cotto may not ever be as loved as Trinidad on the island. At the end of the day, Arum believes Cotto's prowess in the ring will be the determining factor.

Cotto is on the right track, but he has a ways to go. Trinidad was 16-0 with 14 knockouts in welterweight title fights. He moved up to junior middleweight and went 3-0 with two knockouts in title fights, giving him a 19-0 record with 16 knockouts in championship bouts to that point.

Trinidad moved up and won a piece of the middleweight championship with a fifth-round technical knockout of William Joppy.

Trinidad finally ran into his first roadblock, being stopped by Bernard Hopkins in the 12th round in a middleweight title unification fight in September 2001 at Madison Square Garden.

Trinidad, who Jan. 19 at Madison Square Garden will fight Roy Jones Jr., has had three fights since, posting a 2-1 record.

None were title fights, which means that part of his ledger stands at 20-1 with 17 knockouts.

Cotto (30-0, 25 KOs) has won titles in the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions, and he is 10-0 with eight knockouts in title fights. He is about halfway to Trinidad's accomplishments, but Arum chooses to look at the scenario in a different fashion.

"Look where Felix was at this stage of his career and look where Miguel is," Arum said. "I don't think there is any comparison. Miguel is so far ahead at the equivalent stage of his career. I think that working together with Miguel, with the Cotto team, everyone at Top Rank will do the utmost to enhance his popularity to the ultimate.

"And I think that eventually, before he is finished, he will not only achieve the same measure of popularity - if he hasn't already - as Felix Trinidad, but will be a crossover attraction because Felix was never able to learn to speak English and Miguel has."

Cotto turned 27 less than two weeks ago. At that exact time in his career, Trinidad, now 34, had already won all 16 of his welterweight title bouts, and was about two months shy of winning his first junior middleweight title fight. In other words, Arum's argument doesn't wash.

Interestingly, the 16th and final welterweight title fight of Trinidad's career was his victory over De La Hoya in September 1999. Carlos Gonzalez, the boxing writer for Primera Hora, Puerto Rico's largest daily newspaper, said it was then that Trinidad took an incredible hold on the island.

"Trinidad rose to the top when he defeated De La Hoya; that is the moment when he really became popular," Gonzalez said Tuesday from New York. "People followed him, but not as much until that fight and he has maintained that popularity because of his personality.

"He has no problem stopping and talking to people to sign autographs. He is more of a people person. He likes to be around other people. Cotto is more reserved. He likes to be more with his family and friends."

Gonzalez said a victory over Mosley would go a long way for Cotto.

"If Miguel wins this fight, not only will it represent a big steppingstone in his career, but also, people will finally give him the credit that he defeated one of the top guys, a big-name fighter," Gonzalez said. "When Tito fought De La Hoya, there were big parades, people were out on the streets. Even the government, there was no work day because they wanted to go out and celebrate with Tito.

"With Miguel, that hasn't happened yet. When he comes home from one of his fights, he always arrives late at night so there aren't a lot of people at the airport. I don't think he really likes that attention."

Trinidad is not talking. This newspaper reached his adviser, Pepe Ramos, on the island last week where Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs) is preparing for Jones. Ramos said Trinidad would have nothing to say about Cotto.

"We don't comment on Cotto's career," Ramos said.

Trinidad doesn't want to talk about Cotto. And Cotto doesn't want to be Trinidad.

"I," Cotto said, "am not Tito."

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