Miguel Cotto earned a TKO victory Saturday night after Oktay Urkal’s corner waived a white towel in the 11th round of a surprisingly spirited fight. Cotto (29-0, 24 KO’s) overcame a number of head butts from Urkal with one causing a cut above Cotto’s left eye early in the fight.
As the rounds increased, so did the headbutts, causing Cotto to lose his composure. At the end of round ten, Cotto picked Urkal up on his shoulder and almost flipped him over on his back, a move similar to what most wrestling fans see in the WWE. Urkal (38-4, 11 KO’s) began winning some rounds as the fight progressed. But with is fighter receiving “illegal” body shots, Urkal’s trainer decided that he had seen enough and ended it one minuet into the 11th round.
Cotto earned himself another knockout victory and sets himself up for a HBO pay-per-view fight with Brooklyn’s Zab Judah on June 9th.
Even with defeat, Urkal surprised a lot of the fans in attendance, keeping the fight fairly competitive. If the fight would have taken place in a neutral city, the outcome may have been very different, with HBO, the referee, and two of the judges giving a little too much home court advantage to Cotto.
On the other undercard, Edison Miranda earned a majority decision victory over previously undefeated Allan Green. Miranda (28-1, KO’s) won the highly anticipated, but un-suspenseful, fight dominating the fight from the first round on. He survived an 8th round knockdown and ended the fight with two knockdowns in the final minute.
touchgloves.com sidenote: The Cotto-Urkal fight had the worthless open scoring system. In the post fight interview, Urkal’s trainer stated that knowing how far of a gap his fighter was on the scorecards played a part in him stopping the fight. We can only hope that the open scoring system is never used again.
Comments (2)
Miranda didn't just outlast Allan as your article suggests. He destroyed Allan.
Posted by MannyDiaz | March 4, 2007 5:03 PM
I wouldn't say he destroyed Green, it was just a bad fight with a great ending. If it wasn't for the 12th round surge, people would be questioning how good Miranda really is. I think he needs to work on his boxing skills a little more and start developing a left hook. Lastly, Green just seemed to be out of it for 11 of the 12 rounds.
Posted by FPantangeli | March 4, 2007 5:52 PM