In a recent interview with FightHype's own Mike Juhas, world-renowned adviser and now promoter Sampson Lewkowicz blasted WBA jr. middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, essentially calling him a coward who prefers to handpick recycled opponents. When asked if he thought the winner of the December rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito would be willing to face middleweight king Sergio Martinez, Lewkowicz was not shy about giving his brutally honest opinion. "If Margarito wins, I guarantee you that it'll be very easy to make the fight. If it's Cotto, Martinez feels Cotto will be afraid to take the fight. It would make an excellent pay-per-view, but Cotto has his own agenda, to fight whoever he wants and not who the fans want," Lewkowicz remarked. But wait, there's more!
Apparently, despite holding victories over Ricardo Mayorga, Shane Mosley, and Zab Judah, Lewkowicz is unimpressed with Cotto's resume, saying it's nothing to be proud of. "In order to be like Tito Trinidad, you need to fight Martinez. If he wants to go to another level, he needs to fight Martinez and not recycled fighters. If you see his record and who he's fought, it's nothing to be too proud of," Lewkowicz added. Actually, perhaps Lewkowicz has a point. Considering that his wins over Mayorga, Mosley and Judah came well after their prime and after they had already suffered several defeats, one could consider them to be "recycled" in a sense. Outside of those names, Cotto's resume is made up of notable victories over Yuri Foreman, Joshua Clottey, Michael Jennings, Alfonso Gomez, Oktay Urkal, Carlos Quintana, and Paulie Malignaggi. That's not exactly murderer's row, and it definitely doesn't stack up to the type of legacy that Puerto Rican sensation Felix "Tito" Trinidad left behind.
So what say you, fans? Is Lewkowicz right? Is Cotto's resume "nothing to be too proud of"? Does he need a fight with Sergio Martinez to truly define his career to stand beside the other Puerto Rican legends?