Is Miguel Cotto A Sore Loser?

Let me be clear on one thing - I thought Saturday's superfight between Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez was way, WAY closer than the judges did. I also thought the HBO ringside team was biased in favor in Canelo throughout the fight. Indeed, I felt the majority of analysts were misguided in their assessment of the whole affair as well.

Now, admittedly, I could be wrong here. I've been wrong one or two thousand times before, after all. Perhaps the shots Canelo was landing really were that much more thudding up close and in person. Perhaps most professionals were completely objective in their opinions on the bout. Perhaps I saw it all wrong (I thought it was quite close, with Canelo most likely edging Cotto out ). A second viewing should clear it all up for me.

In the meantime, there's the little matter of Miguel Cotto's post fight behavior to discuss. Miguel, in case you haven't seen, heard or read, took off after the decision was read and didn't even bother going to the post fight press conference. At first, I admittedly sympathized with the guy. I felt, after all, that he was up against boxing's NEXT BIG STAR and therefore wasn't going to get a fair break no matter what he did.

Now that I think about it, though, I'm not so sure. Boxing is boxing, after all, and sometimes the fight game can be unfair. Although the outrageously wide scorecards revealed that Cotto might not have been able to do anything to win aside from stop his opponent outright or engage in a one sided schooling, there's something to be said about being a good sport about the whole thing no matter what, about that letting those who should be shamed act shamefully rather than engaging in such behavior yourself.

I'm still cutting Cotto a bit of slack here, but I'm beginning to feel like he really should have shown up at the post fight press conference, and given Canelo his props for putting on a terrific show before firmly (yet politely) stating his case. Right now, those who didn't give the guy a fair shot can be remorse-free for not doing so. After all, a lack of sportsmanship generally doesn't strengthen anyone's argument. And unless Cotto had to go to a hospital after the fight, he may have been better served facing the press.

Easy for me to say, I know.