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| Date | June 6, 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBC and The Ring middleweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cotto wins via 4th–round technical knockout | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Miguel Cotto vs. Daniel Geale was a professional boxing match contested on June 6, 2015, for the WBC and The Ring middleweight titles. [1]
Miguel Cotto, after having defeated Sergio Martínez in June 2014 to capture the WBC middleweight title, began negotiations with Canelo Álvarez with the long-awaited and much-hyped fight tentatively scheduled for May 2, 2015, which Álvarez preferred due to it taking place on the weekend prior to Cinco de Mayo. However, Golden Boy Promotions head Oscar De La Hoya, who promoted Álvarez admitted that the talks between both fighters had been difficult as Cotto preferred to have the fight in June, around the time of Puerto Rican Day Parade. [2] In the meantime, Cotto was originally scheduled to return to the ring in December 2014 at Madison Square Garden, but Cotto opted to sit out the remainder of 2014 as his trainer Freddie Roach would be preoccupied with training Manny Pacquiao for his November fight with Chris Algieri. [3] In January 2014, after months of negotiations, it was announced that talks for the Cotto–Álvarez fight had ceased and both fighters would pursue other opponents for the time being. [4]
In April, it was announced that Cotto end his year-long hiatus and return to the ring to face former WBA and IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale on June 6 at the Barclays Center. The bout was viewed as a tune-up for Cotto prior to facing Álvarez, who himself was facing James Kirkland in May, later in the year. [5] Cotto insisted on the fight having a catchweight of 157 pounds, three pounds under the middleweight division. [6] Geale, fearing he would have difficulty making the weight, initially refused Cotto's demand for a catchweight, but after Cotto threatened to withdraw from the bout, Geale relented. [7] At the weigh-in the day before the fight, Geale managed to just make weight, coming in at 157 pounds even. [8]
Cotto was the regaining TBRB champion with Geale ranked 7th.
Cotto would dominate Geale through 3+ rounds, landing over double the amount of punches and appeared to be far quicker than Geale, who landed nothing substantial during the duration of the bout. Just before the end of round three, Cotto stunned Geale with a right hand that sent him staggering into the ropes. 30 seconds into round four, Cotto sent Geale down on his back with a left hook. Geale would get to his knees before answering the referee's count at nine and continuing the fight. Cotto would continue his assault before dropping Geale with a short right hand. Geale would beat the referee's 10-count but shook his head when asked if he wanted to continue, thus giving Cotto the victory be technical knockout at 1:28 of the fourth round. [9]
Confirmed bouts: [10]
| Weight Class | Weight | vs. | Method | Round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catchweight | 157 lbs. | Miguel Cotto | def. | Daniel Geale | TKO | 4/12 | note 1 |
| Featherweight | 126 lbs. | Fernando Vargas Parra | def. | Wilfredo Vázquez Jr. | UD | 8/8 | |
| Featherweight | 126 lbs. | Angel Luna | def. | Jose Lopez | UD | 6/6 | |
| Light Heavyweight | 175 lbs. | Junior Younan | def. | Mike Sawyer | TKO | 2/6 | |
| Heavyweight | 200+ lbs. | Zhilei Zhang | def. | Glenn Thomas | UD | 4/4 | |
| Welterweight | 147 lbs. | Dustin Fleischer | def. | Kareem Millner | TKO | 1/4 | |
| Super Bantamweight | 122 lbs. | Shawn Simpson | def. | Damon Simon | TKO | 4/4 |
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 Australia | Main Event |
 Hungary | Sport 1 |
| Latin America | Space |
 United Kingdom | BoxNation |
 United States | HBO |