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Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Álvarez

Date	November 21, 2015
Venue	Mandalay Bay Events Center, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.
Title(s) on the line	The Ring, TBRB and vacant WBC middleweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer Miguel Cotto Saúl Álvarez Nickname "Junito" "Canelo" ("Cinnamon") Hometown Caguas, Puerto Rico Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico Purse $15,000,000 $5,000,000 Pre-fight record 40–4 (33 KO) 45–1–1 (32 KO) Age 35 years 25 years, 4 months Height 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) Weight 153+1⁄2 lb (70 kg) 155 lb (70 kg) Style Orthodox Orthodox Recognition The Ring/TBRB Middleweight Champion 4-division world champion WBC No. 1 Ranked Middleweight The Ring/TBRB No. 1 Ranked Light middleweight Former Unified Light middleweight champion
Result
Álvarez wins via 12-round unanimous decision (117-111, 119-109, 118-110)

Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Álvarez was a professional boxing match contested on November 21, 2015, for the WBC, The Ring and TBRB middleweight championship. It took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada. It was televised by HBO pay-per-view.

Background

Having made one defence of the middleweight championship he had won from Sergio Martinez, dominating former titleholder Daniel Geale, Miguel Cotto agreed to face former Unified Light middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez with the winner set to face WBC "interim" champion Gennady Golovkin.

The fight took place at a catchweight of 155 lbs at Cotto's request.

On November 17, four days before the bout, the WBC announced that they were withdrawing recognition of Cotto as their Middleweight World Champion. The WBC's reasoning was "After several weeks of communications, countless attempts and good faith time extensions trying to preserve the fight as a WBC World Championship, Miguel Cotto and his promotion did not agree to comply with the WBC Rules & Regulations, while Canelo Alvarez has agreed to do so." This meant that, though Cotto was stripped of his title, Alvarez still had the opportunity to win the championship. Cotto then stated publicly that the reason the WBC stripped him of his title was because he refused to pay their sanctioning fees, which he believed to be excessive.

Álvarez was a 3-1 favorite to win.

The fights

Undercard

Among the preliminary bouts Zhilei Zhang survived a last round knockdown to outpoint Juan Goode.

The PPV card began with Ronny Rios scoring a decision over Jayson Velez, which was followed by Guillermo Rigondeaux earning a wide decision victory over Drian Francisco.

Miura vs. Vargas

Takashi Miura vs Francisco Vargas

Title(s) on the line	WBC super featherweight title
Tale of the tape
Boxer Takashi Miura Francisco Vargas Nickname "Bomber Left" El Bandido ("The Bandit") Hometown Mitane, Akita-ken, Japan Mexico City, Ciudad de México, Mexico Purse $400,000 $200,000 Pre-fight record 29–2–2 (22 KO) 22–0–1 (16 KO) Age 31 years, 6 months 30 years, 10 months Height 5 ft 7 in (170 cm) 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) Weight 130 lb (59 kg) 129+1⁄2 lb (59 kg) Style Southpaw Orthodox Recognition WBC Super Featherweight Champion The Ring No. 1 Ranked Super Featherweight TBRB No. 2 Ranked Super Featherweight WBC No. 1 Ranked Super Featherweight The Ring No. 4 Ranked Super Featherweight TBRB No. 6 Ranked Super Featherweight
Result
Vargas defeats Miura by 9th round TKO

The co-feature of the fight saw Takashi Miura, defending the WBC world super featherweight title for the fifth time against Francisco Vargas, who was the mandatory challenger.

Miura, who was fighting in the United States for the first time and for only the second time outside of Japan said during the build up "Francisco Vargas has proved himself to be a tough competitor, but I have repeatedly fought to keep my WBC title and on Nov. 21, I will show American fans once again why I am a champion.".

The fight

The bout would turn out to be a brutal affair, Vargas hurting the champion in the 1st round with a straight counter right. Miura would then have success with a straight left and body punches, opening a sizable cut under Vargas' right eye. In the 4th a right-left combination sent Vargas down. He beat the count but as the fight progressed his eye became more and more swelled as Miura landed a string of lefts. Vargas would start the 8th strongly before getting badly hurt by a furry in the corner at the end of the round. In the 9th, Vargas landed a hard right that knocked down Miura, the champion beat the count but Vargas kept landing punches including a left uppercut followed by a number of body shots. The heavy punishment prompted referee Tony Weeks to step in and wave the bout off.

At the time of the stopage, Miura led on two of the scorecards 77–74 and 76–75, with the third scoring it 75–75.

Aftermath

The bout was eventually named The Ring magazine Fight of the Year for 2015.

Main Event

The fight was close throughout as both boxers were cautious in their attacks, neither fighter was seriously hurt. As Cotto attacked with a jab the whole fight, and didn't sit down on his punches, instead deciding to employ movement. Álvarez responded with power punches, landing especially to the body. Both fighters showed iron chins, with Cotto repeatedly coming back after hard shots to the head.

The scorecards at the end of the night were highly controversial as they did not show the competitiveness of the fight, with many boxing pundits having Álvarez winning by a round or two, others called it a draw. The official judges' scorecards read 119–109, 118–110, and 117–111 for Álvarez. ESPN.com had the fight much closer, but still scored it in favour of Álvarez at 115–113, as did The Guardian. HBO's unofficial scorer Harold Lederman scored the fight 117–111 for Álvarez, as did Doug Fischer of The Ring.

According to CompuBox, Álvarez landed 155 of 484 punches (32 percent), and Cotto landed 129 of 629 (21 percent), with Álvarez landing the heavier blows and inflicting more damage. There was a fraction of the boxing world that felt Cotto won by both a small margin, while others felt he won decisively. Cotto left immediately after hearing the scorecards, with his team and family.

Aftermath

According to HBO, the fight generated 900,000 buys on PPV, which equated to around $58 million in domestic revenue. This was the first time since 2002, that a PPV generated 900,000 which didn't include Mayweather, Pacquiao or De La Hoya. That bout was a heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.

Fight card

Confirmed bouts:

Weight Class	Weight		vs.		Method	Round	Time	Notes
Middleweight	155 lbs.	Canelo Álvarez	def.	Miguel Cotto (c)	UD	12/12
Super Featherweight	130 lbs.	Francisco Vargas	def.	Takashi Miura (c)	TKO	9/12	1:31
Bantamweight	121 lbs.	Guillermo Rigondeaux	def.	Drian Francisco	UD	10/10
Featherweight	126 lbs.	Ronny Rios	def.	Jayson Velez	UD	10/10

^Note 1 For WBC and The Ring Middleweight titles. Only Canelo Álvarez may win the WBC Middleweight title. If Miguel Cotto wins, interim champion Gennady Golovkin becomes the WBC Middleweight champion, with Cotto having been stripped a few days prior due to a dispute over sanctioning fees.
^Note 2 For WBC Super Featherweight title.

Broadcasting

Country	Broadcaster
Australia	Main Event
Mexico	Azteca
Panama	RPC
United Kingdom	BoxNation
United States	HBO

References

1. "Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Álvarez". tapology.com. Tapology. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
2. "Saul Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto". boxrec.com. BoxRec. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
3. "Golden Boy Promotions". 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
4. Lance Pugmire (31 July 2015). "Canelo Alvarez-Miguel Cotto close to deal for Nov. 21 Mandalay Bay bout". latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
5. Tyler Conway. "Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Alvarez Fight Announced: Date, PPV Info and Prediction". bleacherreport.com. Bleacher Report. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
6. Bryan Armen Graham (20 November 2015). "National pride on the line as Cotto and Alvarez vie for middleweight glory". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
7. "Miguel Cotto reveals preferred catch weight limit for possible Canelo Alvarez fight | Boxingjunkie". 2016-03-28. Archived from the original on 2016-03-28. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
8. ^ "World Boxing Council". Wbcboxing.com. 2015-11-17. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
9. "Miguel Cotto: Ask Oscar De La Hoya to give $1.1 million to the WBC and wait". CBSSports.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
10. "Fight:2007550". boxrec.com. BoxRec. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
11. Dan Rafael (2015-10-20). "Takashi Miura, Francisco Vargas set for undercard of Cotto-Canelo fight". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
12. Scott Christ (21 November 2015). "Cotto vs Canelo results: Francisco Vargas comes back to stop Takashi Miura in FOTY contender". badlefthook.com. Bad Left Hook. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
13. Lance Pugmire (21 November 2015). "Francisco Vargas rallies to beat Takashi Miura for super-featherweight title". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
14. Joseph Zucker (22 November 2015). "Takashi Miura vs. Francisco Vargas: Winner, Recap and Reaction from Knockout". bleacherreport.com. Bleacher Report. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
15. "2015 fight of the year: Francisco Vargas TKO9 Takashi Miura". January 2016.
16. Bryan Armen Graham (22 November 2015). "Miguel Cotto v Canelo Alvarez – as it happened". theguardian.com. Mandalay Bay Events Center: The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
17. "Canelo tops Cotto to claim middleweight title". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
18. "Canelo Alvarez beats Miguel Cotto on points to win WBC world middleweight title". Sky Sports. November 22, 2015. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
19. "Alvarez-Cotto PPV hits about $58M in revenue". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-20. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
20. "Alvarez-Cotto PPV hits about $58M in revenue". ESPN.com. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
21. "BoxRec - event".
22. Martin Hines (21 November 2015). "Miguel Cotto vs Saul Canelo Alvarez - live boxing on TV this weekend". independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved 8 August 2024.

• 2015 in boxing
• 2015 in sports in Nevada
• November 2015 sports events in the United States
• Boxing matches involving Miguel Cotto
• Boxing matches involving Canelo Álvarez
• Boxing matches at Mandalay Bay Events Center
• Boxing on HBO
• Golden Boy Promotions
• Middleweight championship matches
• Pay-per-view boxing matches