COMPUBOX POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

by Bob Canobbio

Miguel Cotto was in a no-win situation Saturday night as he made the first defense of his version of the welterweight title vs. German based challenger Oktay Urkal.

Blow away Urkal and it's just that, a one-sided tuneup for his next defense, June 9, in New York, vs. former champ Zab Judah. Go the distance vs. the fleet-footed Urkal and critics would wonder was his dominating performance vs. Carlos Quintana just a fluke- could Cotto really punch at 147-lbs?

The final determination lies somewhere in the middle. Cotto pressed the action all night, landing 54% of his power shots (168 of 313), giving Urkal a hellacious beating to the body in the process, but never knocking him down. Urkal took a better punch than expected and also landed some leather of his own, hitting on 45% of his power shots (127 of 280). Cotto discovered early that Urkal's punches had no pop and proceeded to walk Urkal down, even if it required him taking two or three shots to get close to Urkal before unloading to his body and head. The 127 power shots landed by Urkal were the most by any opponent of Cotto's in 19 of his fights tracked by CompuBox. Cotto had only been past the 10th round three times in 28 fights, another testimony to Urkal's toughness.

Cotto even outjabbed the jabber. He landed 55 of 192 (29%) to just 20 of 228 (9%) for Urkal, who was more content to land several soft punches, move around the ring and use his head in an attempt to keep Cotto at bay. Urkal's repeated head-butts (he lost two-points for those infractions) produced the only blood in the fight- a cut over Cotto's left eye that could jeopardize the Judah fight.

Following the second point deduction, which occurred in the 11th round, Urkal's corner surprisingly threw in the towel in protest- not as a result of the points deducted from their fighter, but rather in protest of the punches "to the back of Urkal" that Cotto was permitted to land all fight. Urkal's corner also knew their fighter was hopelessly behind on points due to the hideous concept of "open scoring" that the local commission decided to employ, so they pulled the plug. An injustice to Urkal, who fought a courageous fight and should have been given every opportunity to go the distance.

Overall, Cotto, who chose to enter the ring sans music, which flattened out the 11,000-plus fans in attendance, landed 223 of 505 (44%) total punches to 147 of 508 (29%) for Urkal, whose record dropped to 0-4 in title fights- his other losses to Vivian Harris twice and Kosta Tszyu.