Miguel Cotto vs. Yoshihiro Kamegai

Miguel Cotto vs. Yoshihiro Kamegai

Date	August 26, 2017
Venue	StubHub Center, Carson, California, U.S.
Title(s) on the line	vacant WBO light middleweight title
Tale of the tape
Boxer Miguel Cotto Yoshihiro Kamegai Nickname Junito Maestrito ("Maestro") Hometown Caguas, Puerto Rico Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan Purse $750,000 $192,000 Pre-fight record 40–5 (33 KO) 27–3–2 (24 KO) Age 36 years, 9 months 34 years, 9 months Height 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) Weight 153.6 lb (70 kg) 153.8 lb (70 kg) Style Orthodox Orthodox Recognition WBO No. 1 Ranked Light Middleweight The Ring No. 3 Ranked Light middleweight 4-division world champion WBO No. 6 Ranked Light Middleweight
Result
Cotto wins via 12–round unanimous decision (120–108, 119–109, 118–110)

Miguel Cotto vs. Yoshihiro Kamegai was a professional boxing match contested on August 26, 2017, for the vacant WBO light middleweight title.^[1]

Following a November 2015 loss to Canelo Álvarez, four-division world champion Miguel Cotto had been inactive after several efforts to get back in the ring had fallen through. First, Cotto and his team had engaged in talks with fellow four-division world champion Juan Manuel Márquez, who had been on hiatus for nearly two years.^[2] The Cotto–Márquez fight had nearly been agreed to when negotiations fell apart due to both parties disagreeing on which weight to fight at; the smaller Márquez was willing to come up to the 147–pound welterweight limit, while Cotto, who had not fought as a welterweight since 2009 and had been fighting in either the 154–pound light middleweight or 160–pound middleweight divisions since, insisted on 150–pound catchweight between the welterweight and light middleweight divisions, which Márquez refused, causing the fight's cancellation.^[3] After ending talks with Márquez, Cotto still had tentative plans to return to the ring that fall with Michael Yormark of Roc Nation, who promoted Cotto, claiming that they were "hopeful" to make an announcement on a possible opponent "over the next couple of weeks."^[4] However, in October, after talks with former IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson broke down, it was announced that Cotto would not fight at all in 2016.^[5] In December, Cotto reached an agreement to face James Kirkland February 25, 2017, seemingly ending his 15–month layoff.^[6] However, this fight too was derailed when Kirkland suffered a broken nose during a sparring session at his training camp in early February.^[7]

Cotto then reached an agreement with little known Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Kamegai to fight for the vacant WBO light middleweight title. This fight was temporarily put in jeopardy when Roc Nation refused to meet Cotto's purse demands as they feared that the fight would lose money with Cotto taking on a rather obscure fighter. This would lead to Cotto and Roc Nation parting ways and Cotto instead signing a deal with Golden Boy Promotions. With Golden Boy at the helm, the Cotto–Kamegai fight was made official in late May to take place that August in California's StubHub Center.^[8][9]

Cotto would cruise to a lopsided unanimous decision, winning every round on judge Robin Taylor's scorecard (120–108) while only winning three rounds combined on the other two (119–109 and 118–110). Cotto landed punches almost at will, tying a career high with 251 power punches landed and landing 40% of his total punches, which equated to 339 out of a career high 839 thrown punches. Though Kamegai was unable to sustain much offense, he showed remarkable durability as, despite being hammered by Cotto's power punches all throughout the fight, he continued to press forward and never appeared to be in danger of getting knocked down.^[10][11]

Confirmed bouts:^[12]

^Note 1 For Vacant WBO light middleweight title
^Note 2 For WBC Super Bantamweight title

Country	Broadcaster
Latin America	Space
Panama	RPC
United Kingdom	BoxNation
United States	HBO