Miguel Cotto's training diary
Pacquiao Vs. Cotto: Courage And Heart
In Miguel Cotto's training diary, the boxer offers an overview of his preparations -- both on a personal and professional level -- for his Saturday night clash with Manny Pacquiao. Cotto offers intimate details of his training camp in Tampa Bay, Fla., and opens the doors to his gym for a look at his intense daily routine. In this final installment, Cotto offers his overall thoughts.
Overall, I am pleased with how the training has gone. All our training camps have been excellent and this one is no exception. I have done the right things in my camp to make a great fight on Saturday. I have no doubt I am going to be the winner of this fight. It is going to be a great fight for me and the fans and all the people in the boxing world.
I have a very strong feeling that I'm going to win. He's going to come into my division to try to take my title but I'm fully prepared and I'm going to give everything to keep my title. We prepared for anything he can bring me and everyone is going to see what happens on Saturday night.
I trained a lot. I never trained so hard for a fight. We prepared our game plan; it's going to be a great fight, especially for Latin fans and the people of Puerto Rico.
I don't know anything about the betting business. I am just here to try to bring my best every day in the gym and in training camp, and I am working to beat Manny. If the people bet for Manny, it is all right with me. I am here for myself and not any kind of bet. All the people that are betting for Manny Pacquiao are not going to change the result of this fight.
If I didn't feel well and good I wouldn't be here fighting today. I'm fully recovered and I'm fully prepared to win the fight.
The Margarito fight is out of my mind. Out of everything about me. After the Margarito fight, I dedicated myself even more to boxing. Look where I am now, and look where Margarito is now.
I am not going to go to a doctor and tell him how to do his work. He knows how to do his work, and I know how to do my work. I am pretty recovered from the Margarito defeat. I showed the world with my last two victories, and I don't have anything else to say about that. The last fight against Margarito put my mind and my focus on another level and you know sometimes when you lose you win.
The Joshua Clottey fight this past June wasn't an easy fight with that cut over my eye, but I have a lot of commitment with myself and with my family, and with them in my mind and I made my best effort to keep myself fighting and win the fight.
If you ever saw somebody who fought with a huge cut over his eye and had to deal with the cut and an opponent in front of him and win the fight -- it is all the things I had to deal with. I had a huge cut over my eye, a strong opponent in front of me, and I was the winner of the fight. I learned how to deal with huge problems in a title fight.
Winding down
My training has already lowered in intensity and the balance so far has been excellent. We have been making a lot of progress in our preparations and we've achieved a lot through excellent communication.
I understand that many people believe that the title of the best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound, is on the line in this fight. But I am not interested in the pound-for-pound title at all. Just knowing that I will be involved in a fight that will be remembered for such a long time, for many years to come, is already satisfying enough, and that's what matters most for me -- more than any other title.
I know that Wilfredo Gomez has been talking about this fight, and many people compare me with him. I feel honored to be compared with him. Wilfredo is one of the greatest Puerto Rican and Latin American boxers of all time, and I am honored to be mentioned in the same level. But I am what I am. I never tried to emulate anybody; I have always been myself.
I know that Freddie Roach has been going at it again, talking about the fight and making predictions, but I don't have anything else to say about Freddie Roach anymore. The best he can do is train Pacquiao so he can try to beat me, and Miguel Cotto will take care of the rest come Saturday night.
To all of those who follow my training and everything I do, I want to thank them for their support. Don't miss the fight. It will be huge and it will be a great victory for Miguel Cotto and a great day for his fans.
Now arriving in Las Vegas
Chris Farina/Top RankMiguel Cotto feels he's found the right balance in his training regime to prime himself for Manny Pacquiao.We have finally arrived in Las Vegas. We got to Vegas last Sunday, and we rented a house there, but immediately after that we had to leave Monday for an open workout in Los Angeles, for a public training session that we did there for the press and other people.
The open workout was at the Pound4Pound gym. It was open to the press, a promotional training session, and now [Monday] we're going to start training again behind closed doors.
Last week it was my birthday, but I didn't stop training. I followed my routine as usual. I trained all day and then I went out and celebrated a little bit, but nothing else.
I know it is not usual to come to Las Vegas with so many days of anticipation, but we came ahead of time to get acclimated to the time change, to get used to the new time zone here on the West Coast of the United States.
I haven't added anybody to my team. We're still the same group of people that was training in Tampa all this time. The only change is that we've lowered the intensity of the training sessions, because now we're getting closer to the fight. We lowered the intensity and the amount of rounds of training to give the body a chance to rest and get ready for the fight. I continue training with Phil Landman to get physically ready for the fight, and I am already within the weight limit. I believe I am well on my way to get to the fight in very good shape.
'I win my fights in the gym'
AP Photo/Lori SheplerMiguel Cotto thinks Manny Pacquiao's camp may be overlooking his strength and fitness.This week I continue training very hard and I'm doing quite a lot of sparring. I never count how many rounds I spar; that's up to my trainer to decide. But I am guessing I'm sparring between 10 and 15 rounds. My sparring partners are the same guys I had for previous fights: Fred Tukes and Kenny Abril.
I have already heard that Bob Arum said Pacquiao trains almost twice as hard as me. I don't really care about comments like that. Our training will show on the day of the fight. I do my job the way it has to be done, as planned, and on the day of the fight we'll see who's in the best possible condition. Manny has already said that he considers this fight to be the most difficult of his career and that's why he's training so hard. I expect to win and I train hard enough to achieve that. I win my fights in the gym, training very hard. If Pacquiao trains more or less than me, I cannot worry about that. The key to our training is to be 100 percent prepared, always. If Manny works as hard as I do, we'll have a great fight.
I also know that Manny Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, has been yapping again, but he is always talking, and after this fight he'll have no option but to shut up. This fight will be tough, but I am confident I will be victorious. Freddie should worry about getting Manny ready for me, a bigger and stronger fighter who always comes ready to win. I have already faced southpaws and I've won all the time, but he hasn't fought anybody as strong as me. We'll see how he manages to deal with my style once we get in the ring.
A more mature fighter
AP Photo/Frank Franklin IIMiguel Cotto has returned to Tampa ahead of his fight with Manny Pacquiao.I am training very hard. The camp's going great. We are only three weeks away, or about 19 days away from the fight. What I do basically is run. I run a lot in the morning and then I rest. I train in the afternoon and then I rest again. On Tuesdays and Fridays I have a massage session. The rest of the time is about resting and trying to have a good time in the house.
We rented a house -- a big house -- and that's where we're staying. The gym that we go to is about 10 minutes away from the house.
My team consists of Joe Santiago, Brian Pérez, my father Miguel Cotto, my mother and no one else. My family and my kids have come to see me on two occasions, and now I won't see them until the day of the fight, when I will meet them in Las Vegas.
We rest all day Sunday and train from Monday through Saturday. When we have a chance, we all go out together. We visit the malls, the movie theaters. I was unable to watch the [Argentinian soccer derby] River versus Boca game last Sunday, but I always follow River [Cotto has become a fan through his trainer, Miguel Díaz, and River's fan club in Puerto Rico; Cotto has worn River Plate's jersey in the ring prior to many of his fights]. But I spend all my time practically between the gym and the house.
I chose Tampa because we trained here for the fight against Joshua Clottey, our last fight. We really liked it here, and that's why we're back. The weather is practically the same as in Puerto Rico. This is one of the reasons why we chose Tampa.
Many years ago I fought in Tampa in the pre-Olympic tournament. That was 10 years ago. Now, I am a more mature fighter, a fighter that has completely changed his style since his amateur days to my current professional days. I have changed a lot; I have grown, I have gained a lot of maturity, and I have established myself as a person. Those are the main changes that I've seen in me.
Miguel Cotto will fight Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night.
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