Miguel Cotto Batters Gomez

Miguel Cotto crushed Alfonso Gomez to retain his WBA world welterweight title in Atlantic City on Saturday night.

The Puerto Rican (now 32-0) maintained his perfect professional record when former 'Contender' star Gomez was stopped on his stool at the end of round five at the Boardwalk Hall. Gomez had earned the right to this match by overcoming Ben Tackie and Arturo Gatti.

But proving too good for those shop-worn former big guns is a far cry from taking on a Cotto at the peak of his powers.

And the Mexican was never at the races, being handed a sustained beating by the man widely acclaimed as Floyd Mayweather's rightful challenger for the title of world's top welterweight.

Cotto outscored his opponent by 108-23 in rounds three and four alone as he once again showed his ability to systematically break down his foes with awesome power in both hands.

Miguel, coming off that career-best win over Shane Mosley last November, looked supremely confident in the opening round. The face of the challenger was reddening inside a minute as Cotto landed stiff jabs, powerful hooks and classy combinations.

And right on the bell Gomez had his knees buckled by a ramrod left hand. Cotto continued to hand out a boxing lesson in the second, consistently beating Gomez to the punch and showing off his full array of attacking weapons.

Gomez was down for the first time with less than a minute remaining in the session as Cotto landed a body shot and a left that glanced off the top of his opponent's head.

Every blow from Cotto, naturally left-handed and switching between orthodox and southpaw, contained venom and in the third he continued to perform boxing surgery on his outclassed opponent.

Gomez though showed he has plenty of heart as he attempted to trade with Cotto, but just couldn't find any chink in the Puerto Rican's armour.

And he was blasted to the canvas for a second time by a ferocious left to the body as the bell sounded to end the round. As he staggered back to his stool Gomez was already being assessed by the ring doctor, and the writing was clearly on the wall.

Bravely he came out for the fourth but could do nothing to turn the tide with Cotto in total command.

It was nothing more than target practice by the end of the round with the only question being how much longer this could go on.

Gomez was red in the face with his right eye badly swollen, but was allowed to come back out for the fifth after another long look from the ring doctor.

Cotto went into exhibition mode as the fifth wore on, boxing more from the outside. But he sprang to life with a minute remaining, putting Gomez down for a third time with a left jab.

Bravely Gomez again got to his feet and made the bell as Cotto appeared to back off a little rather than inflict more punishment. But this time referee Randy Neumann had finally seen enough and called an end to the torture for Gomez.

This brutal destruction from Cotto only served to cement his reputation as the most feared welterweight around.

But with Mayweather seemingly in no rush to face him a showdown with new IBF king Antonio Margarito looks like the next logical step.

Margarito took that title by knocking out Kermit Cintron earlier on the same Atlantic City bill.
Cotto said afterwards: "I'm ready to fight anybody, it doesn't matter. If it's Margarito, I'm ready for him. "I saw the end of Margarito's fight and it was a pretty good fight."