After nearly 60 years at the very top of boxing promotion, Bob Arum has worked with just about every great name the sport has to offer. So when the 94-year-old Top Rank boss was asked to single out the most underrated fighter he has ever promoted, his answer carried real weight: Miguel Cotto.
Arum made the choice during a quick-fire interview, drawing from a career that has included icons such as Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather and the promotion of era-defining fights like Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns. Yet among all those legends, it was Cotto who stood out to him as the most overlooked.
The Puerto Rican star joined Top Rank after his exit from the 2000 Olympic Games, where he lost his opening bout to Mukhammadkodir Abdullaev. That defeat would later be avenged in the professional ranks, and it marked the beginning of an 11-year partnership with Arum that saw Cotto rise to the very top of the sport.
During that time, Cotto won world titles in three weight divisions, later adding a fourth in 2014. He became a regular headliner at Madison Square Garden and built a reputation as one of boxing’s most reliable attractions, admired for his front-foot style and punishing body attack.
Cotto retired in 2017 and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame five years later. Victories over Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Sergio Martinez defined his career, but in Arum’s eyes, his overall legacy still does not receive the recognition it deserves.
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