PUERTO RICO PUNCH-OUT

Photos by Will Hart

The average Yankee's fan is rabidly loyal when things are good for their team and rabidly demanding when things are bad. Your average boxing fan in San Juan is no different. The chant is more often "Sangre, Sangre," which translates to "Blood, Blood," than the name of the fighter. When the action is slow, just like when the Yankee's aren't winning, the boos come out faster than a knife at a street fight.

So tonight at the Roberto Clemente stadium in San Juan Puerto Rico, things were no different when two native sons dismantled their opponents, but not by the knockouts everyone expected. The crowd let both Edison Miranda and Miguel Cotto when they needed to work harder. The capacity crowd could barely stand to let Michael Buffer get "Let's Get Ready..." out of his mouth they were so frenzied. When a brawl broke out in the stands during the 9th round of the Cotto/Urkal fight, the majority of the audience continued to cheer Cotto on as the police cleared an entire section. This is how seriously hometown heros are taken in Puerto Rico.

In the opening match of the night, a determined Edison Miranda was unable to score the KO that nearly everyone was predicting. Miranda, who considers Puerto Rico his adopted home and was clearly working to please with his persistence in scoring a knockout, which worked against him for several of the opening rounds.

Green played the cautious boxer, holding Miranda back with a combination of jabs and speed while Miranda tried unsuccessfully to place wild shots. Careful not to let Miranda too far inside --weeks before Miranda issued a press statement warning children not to watch the fight-- Green was content to let Miranda wear himself out. Unable to counter that style, Miranda spent much of the second round on the receiving end of Green's jab. By the end of the third round, Miranda was in jeopardy of being behind on the cards and potentially too tired to score big, whereas Green seemed be hitting a stride and reading the fighter's attempts at headhunting.

Miranda continued, taunting Green and firing long hooks, connecting some, missing others. Surprisingly Green was able to take a good amount of punishment while fighting the more effective fight. One had to wonder how the wild and energy-draining punches would leave Miranda in later rounds if he was unable to score the affecting shots. With Miranda tiring and Green finding the huge holes in his defenses, Green caught him with a hook in the eighth round, putting the fighter to the mat. But into the final round Miranda let it all fly, unleashing several flurries and dropping Green twice to the mat in spectacular fashion. The crowd was satisfied, any earlier doubts receded into the haze of victory. If not for the ringing of the final bell, the last onslaught by Miranda which bounced Green's head against the cameraman in the corner, would have quickly put him down for a third time.

Miguel Cotto was also unable to score the KO win that seemed by some to be a given in this fight. Oktay Urkal, a veteran fighter from Berlin, managed to fight himself back from several tight moments where Cotto staggered him. Urkal proved to be a tough match for Cotto: He was able to take nearly all the power shots Cotto had and never once was knocked down during the 12 rounds. While Cotto's hammer-like body blows clearly had power behind them, their thuds echoing even among the screaming fans, he was unable to bring the German down and instead the fight was stopped suddenly in the 11th round by Urkal's corner.

However, Cotto did box like a bald-headed monk with remarkable patience, letting Urkal's attempts at power punching to mostly slip off his gloves. He showed that this patience and ability to maintain his agression against an opponent who could fight back might be his strongest points. If he fights Zab Judah next, he'll need to be able to display similar traits against the slick and quick fighter. Perhaps the way Cotto stalked Urkal into the corners and broke his defenses with hard body shots. If Cotto can slow Judah down and amp up his power, that may be his path to victory. In the meantime, the fans in Puerto Rico have their hero and Cotto has his victory.