Feb 22 2009
Cotto and Pavlik win on returns
Miguel Cotto and Kelly Pavlik both made winning returns to the ring last night, in a double headline event for Top Rank Promotions.
Cotto easily overcame British fighter Michael Jennings at Madison Square Garden with a fifth round TKO. Whilst the plucky Brit was in no way disgraced, the gulf in class was evident from the first bell and the bout was stopped in the fifth after Jennings had to pick himself up from the canvas for the third time in the round.
Cotto looked big and strong but never reached the heights of the first six rounds against Margarito, and will need to step up his performances in the future when he faces real, world class opposition.
No disrespect to Jennings, he was not overawed by the Puerto Rican, who was a heavy favourite coming into the fight, but perhaps he over reached himself on the world stage, against a top class fighter, even if not a top class performance.
Meanwhile, over in Youngstown, Ohio hometown favourite Kelly Pavlik made a successful, if not spectacular return in breaking down Marco Antonio Rubio in nine rounds to retain his WBC and WBO straps.
As with Cotto to a degree this was not a particularly impressive return as Pavlik looked one dimensional at times and relied heavily on that big right hand.
Pavlik too will have to step up his game for future fights, but both fighters will be relatively content with their returns to the ring after what could have been career defining defeats to Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Margarito.
I’ll keep you posted!
