Cotto’s punching bags title

NEW YORK -- Miguel Cotto’s star power just punched upward to new heights.

The Puerto Rican welterweight defended his World Boxing Assn. championship Saturday with an impressive unanimous decision over former three-division world champion Shane Mosley of Pomona in front of 15,251 at Madison Square Garden.

In an entertaining battle of continuous exchanges that had no knockdowns, Cotto (31-0, 25 knockouts) pleased his raucous, supportive crowd. He did it by belting his most decorated opponent yet with power punches, counteracting the 36-year-old Mosley’s spirited performance.

Judges Glenn Feldman and Peter Trematerra gave Cotto a 115-113 advantage, and judge Wynn Kintz awarded Cotto a 116-113 edge. Kintz gave Cotto the edge from the sixth through the 11th rounds, and Feldman gave Cotto the last two rounds. Trematerra gave Mosley (44-5) the last three rounds.

“We both did our best, we both gave it our all,” Cotto, 27, said in the ring afterward. “[Mosley] punches real hard, and I was hurt, but I trained to face this kind of speed, movement and power.

“I just threw my punches hard all the time.”

Mosley congratulated Cotto after the decision was announced, calling him “a real warrior.”

“I think I won, I dictated the action,” Mosley said. “But it was a great fight. Miguel was very strong. Not only was he powerful with his pressure, but he can box. He’s a young lion on his way to greatness.”

The smaller Cotto responded strongly to Mosley’s jabbing and dancing, cracking Mosley with lefts and protecting himself from Mosley’s wild punches by swerving and counterpunching.

Cotto’s boxing skills surprised Mosley. In winning the fourth round on all judges’ cards, Cotto pounded Mosley in the face with three lefts and added a left-right combination that left Mosley with a frustrated grimace on his face.

“I was fighting,” Mosley said, “And he kept fighting. That made a great fight. He caught me with some great lefts. I wasn’t going to go down, but I definitely felt the buzz. . . . He’s a tough, tough kid.”

Mosley tried to turn the tables on Cotto’s body-punching by attacking relentlessly. He hit Cotto with his best punch in the ninth round, backing the champion to the ropes. But Cotto answered with a strong left, and did so again in the last seconds of the 10th.

Late in the 12th round, Cotto sustained a two-inch cut near his right eye because of a head butt, leading to minimal last-second action.

Mosley said the difference was “I tried to fight more. Maybe I should’ve boxed more, but I wanted the knockout. . . . I couldn’t get the right shot in.”

Both fighters connected on 248 punches.

Mosley said he’d watch the replay of the fight to see if he would “hang them up or box again.” But he also said, “If there was a rematch, I’d take it.”

As for Cotto’s plans, they include Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ricky Hatton. “Whatever the [promotion] company tells me,” Cotto said.

THE UNDERCARD

Oxnard’s Victor Ortiz made quick work of former world champion Carlos Maussa, knocking him out with a straight left to the jaw that ended the junior welterweight bout at 1:47 of the first round.

Fighting on a major stage and outside the southwest for the first time in his promising career, the 20-year-old Ortiz (20-1-1, 15 KOs) said that after Maussa (19-5) landed one stinging shot on Ortiz’s head, “I knew I had to get rid of him.”

He stood on the ropes in celebration after setting up his knockdown blow with a pounding right to Maussa’s midsection.

“As soon as I got a little distance on him, I was good,” Ortiz said. “I didn’t think it’d be over this quick, but I knew it wouldn’t last too long. That was awesome.”

Tijuana’s Antonio Margarito (35-5, 26 KOs) also was destructive in the first round, knocking down veteran Golden Johnson three times to win a welterweight bout by technical knockout with 22 seconds left in the first.

“I told you I was going to start fast,” said Margarito, who wants a title shot. “I wanted to show everyone I was at the top of the division.”

In a split decision that drew boos, Joel Casamayor (34-3-1) won the World Boxing Council interim lightweight championship by defeating Jose Aramando Santa-Cruz by scores of 114-113 by judge Frank Lombardi, 113-114 by Ron McNair, and 114-113 by Tony Paolillo. Casamayor was knocked down in the first round by Santa-Cruz (25-3).

“I definitely thought I won, listen to the crowd booing,” Santa-Cruz said in the ring afterward.

Casamayor said his “timing was off,” but that he thought he scored enough blows to win.

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