The Final Curtain

After a career where he always stood out from the crowd, Cotto leaves like all the rest.

- Kieran Mulvaney

THE celebrations had been planned, the invitations long ago issued, and 12,371 showed up at Madison Square Garden to bid a victorious farewell to Miguel Cotto.

And then Sadam Ali crashed the party. Rare is the boxer who has the chance to exit the sport on his own terms; the expectation was that Cotto would be that rarity, but Brooklyn’s Ali had other ideas,wobbling the veteran from Caguas, Puerto Rico several times and showing himself to be faster of hand and foot as he ensured the final fight of Cotto’s excellent career was a losing one. Ali prevailed by a close but unanimous points decision, with judges Julie Lederman and Steve Weisfeld scoring it 115113 and Mark Marlinski seeing it as 116-112 in the New Yorker’s favor.

Ali had previously shown great promise, but was – in retrospect, harshly – demoted in the estimation of many observers following a stoppage loss to Jessie Vargas in March 2016. He was largely overlooked in the build-up to what Cotto had announced would be his farewell fight; and although he accepted that with grace, he also, he acknowledged, used it as motivation.