Title Fight for Miguel Cotto, and a Final Toll for Hector Camacho - NYTimes.com

December 1, 2012
For Cotto, a Chance to Capture a Title and to Honor the Legacy of Camacho
By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI


Before Miguel Cotto challenged Austin Trout for the World Boxing Association superwelterweight championship on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, the timekeeper was set to toll a final 10-count for Hector Camacho.

“The house will be packed with thousands of Puerto Ricans who will be rooting for me, but also loved Hector,” Cotto, 32, who grew up in Caguas, P.R., said of the planned tribute. “It’s going to be a very special moment for me and the fans, and especially for Hector’s family.”

Camacho, who held superfeathweight, lightweight and superlightweight world titles in the 1980s and early 1990s and was 15-0 in his career at the Garden, died at 50 on Nov. 24, four days after being shot while sitting in a parked car in Bayamon, P.R. The police found nine small bags of cocaine in the pocket of one of Camacho’s friends, who was killed in the attack, and a 10th bag was open inside the car.

“It’s a terrible loss not only for Puerto Rican people but for all boxing fans,” Cotto, a former world champion in three divisions, said Tuesday at the Garden.

“Camacho was a guy who knew a great deal about boxing,” he added. “He showed a great deal of skill inside the ring. He was amazing.”

Despite his high regard for what Camacho accomplished — including victories over Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran (twice), Edwin Rosario and Ray Mancini — Cotto said that he and Camacho, two of the most popular Puerto Rican fighters in the past quarter-century, were very different outside the ring.

“I’m a little bit shy, a little bit quiet, where Hector was a guy who acted any way he wanted to act,” Cotto said. “We each have our own personality, and depending on how you live your life, good things or bad things are going to happen to you — and something bad happened to Hector Camacho. I only met Hector a couple of times, and he was extraordinary. But we all choose our own lifestyles, and I’ve chosen mine.”

Joel Fisher, the executive vice president of Madison Square Garden Sports, said that although “Camacho was more of a flamboyant personality and Cotto is more businesslike in and out of the ring, their individual styles made them both tremendous fan favorites and brought them both a great deal of success, especially here at the Garden.”

Cotto, who earned millions of dollars while building a record of 37-3 with 30 knockouts (7-0 at the Garden) and a reputation for taking on the toughest fighters of his generation, said before his fight with Trout (25-0) that he would not travel down the path that led to the demise of Camacho.

“I’m 100 percent sure those things will never happen to me,” said Cotto, flipping a pair of dark sunglasses above his eyes to sneak a concerned peek at his wife and three children, who were sitting nearby. “I keep myself busy with boxing.”

Indeed, Cotto has been doing battle with a steady stream of marquee opponents in recent years, a list that includes Shane Mosley, whom Cotto defeated in 2007 to retain his W.B.A. welterweight crown, and Antonio Margarito, who took that title away from him in 2008.

Cotto lost to Manny Pacquiao in a heralded bout in 2009, but met Margarito again last year and defeated him to retain the W.B.A. light-middleweight title.

In May, however, Cotto lost that crown to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“I have my family and many important things in my life to take care of, so I don’t want to be in anyone’s shoes but my own,” Cotto said. “I’m going to stay the same Miguel Cotto inside the ring as I am outside the ring.”

As for marquee fighters, Cotto said that he considered Camacho to be “one of the three or four greatest Puerto Rican fighters of all time, right there with Wilfredo Gómez, Felix Trinidad and Wilfred Benítez.”

Asked if that list should include him, Cotto smiled and said: “That’s up to the people to decide, the same people from New York and Puerto Rico who will be coming to cheer for me on Saturday. Their support really motivates me and gives me that extra burst of energy, which I’ll need because my opponent is young and hungry, but I’m ready to be a champion again.”

He added: “All that cheering over the years is one of the reasons I’ve been so successful at the Garden, and I’m sure Hector felt the same way. Camacho had his time with his fans; now it’s my time, with my fans.”























Title Fight for Miguel Cotto, and a Final Toll for Hector Camacho - NYTimes.com



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