IT COULD BE COTTO

Just a few months ago, Bob Arum lamented the fact that, after Oscar De La Hoya retires, fans will have no new Golden Boy. At the time, he discounted Miguel Cotto out of hand. Said Arum: "He's got to learn English."

So the dynamic and dazzling Puerto Rican light-middleweight took immediate steps to rectify the perceived deficiency. 

Arum and the rest of the boxing community have been amazed how quickly Cotto has taken to the study of the English language. 

They are even more impressed with how quickly he has mastered his opponents in the ring. 

Thus far, Cotto hasn't done a whole lot wrong - and he is learning fast. Combined with his matinee-idol good looks and easy-going manner, he is quite the package. 

With a mere record of 10-0 (eight quick wins), it was a surprise to many experts when Top Rank pitted Cotto, who made his debut in February last year, against Uganda's experienced Justin Juuko in June. 

Juuko was losing more than he was winning, but always in top company: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Diego Corrales and, more recently, Carlos Hernandez. 

Many felt it might be too much too soon for the young fighter who, at 21, is already a father of three. 

"Look what happened to Francisco 'Panchito' Bojado," Juuko said prior to the fight. "Last year, everybody was talking about him. He got busted up and nobody's heard of him since." 

Juuko relished the challenge. "Let's see if the kid can swim," he said. "Let's see if he can go there."

Swim? Like a duck to water. In five short rounds, Cotto took Juuko apart. 

"I knew he was fast but I had no idea he was so strong," Juuko said immediately after the fight. 

Cotto impressed fans and critics alike with his timing, defence, precision offence, speed and a deadly left hook. 

"He's not just good, he's great," said an admiring Arum. "There is something unique and special about Miguel. He is a great body puncher."

Cotto wowed a heavily Mexican crowd at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that had booed him coming into the ring (remember, this was the undercard for Barrera vs Morales II). 

Within minutes, chin tucked low to his chest, Cotto had the audience leaning forward in their seats, anxious not to miss a single shot. 

As devastating as he was in his performance, however, he was equally humble outside the ring. 

"Juuko talked big before this fight," he said. "So big. Fighters really shouldn't trash-talk. They should come to fight. They shouldn't come to say silly things and then look very bad when the fight is over."

So impressed were Top Rank with Cotto that they signed him to headline an ESPN card at the Lucky Star Casino in Concho, Oklahoma, at the end of July. 

His opponent was Mexican Carlos Ramirez, who came in with an 18Ð6 record (14 inside schedule). 

In typical Cotto fashion, he sized up the opposition before making his move, knocking Ramirez out with a withering left to the body shot approaching the end of the third. 

Cotto, who hails from modest beginnings in Caguas, Puerto Rico, is now set to make another jump up in class. There's talk of a match with former world title challenger Ivan Robinson on the 14 September Oscar De La Hoya-Fernando Vargas undercard. Also mooted is a November date with Angel Manfredy. 

"Miguel is the top prospect on the Top Rank roster," said the company's PR executive Lee Samuels. "He is off to a very quick start as a professional, boxing well technically. He typically sizes up his opponent the first round or two, then lashes hard body shots."

Cotto, who still lives and trains in Puerto Rico, never understood why people questioned his decision to fight Juuko. 

"I might have had only a few professional fights," he told Boxing Monthly. "But I think my amateur record of 95-23 balances out my lack of professional bouts. 

"The fight with Juuko was a good test. A very good test. I could tell he didn't like the body punches so I kept them coming. I could see it in his legs. He reacted to every punch. I thought the fight was stopped at a good time. You don't want to see a man take more than he should."

Cotto was unfazed by the attention he received in Las Vegas. He has, after all, fought under the glare of the sporting spotlight in his own country since he was a young amateur. 

"Juuko is the one who has lost seven fights," said Cotto. "The pressure was on him. Not me."

That he has the boxing world at his feet is amazing considering he first arrived at Top Rank's boxing gym in Las Vegas for rehabilitation training last year after a potentially career-ending car accident. 

It's an accident he is, rather perversely, proud to say took everything out of him. "I have been through hell," he said. 

"I appreciate life so much more. So things that used to bother me really don't anymore. I can honestly say I know, I really know, how short this life really is."

It all happened early last year when he was driving to the gym early one morning at 5am. 

"I fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the central divider," he said. "The doctors told me my right shoulder was crushed [and] not to even think about training for 18 months. 

"I didn't have 18 months [to spare]. I was back in the ring in three months. Two months later, I had my next fight. I knocked out Joshua Smith in two rounds [in January this year]. So, yes, the arm works very good." 

He now has a six-inch titanium rod and three pins in his shoulder and a nasty scar. He also has a habit of setting off metal detectors in airports and security-conscious fight venues, but the inconvenience is worth it. 

"I think being in the shape I am in [he doesn't drink, doesn't smoke and doesn't party] really helped," he said. "It gave my body a chance to heal from old injuries. Fighters always fight with some injury. They just never talk about it." 

Now that Felix 'Tito' Trinidad has officially announced his retirement, Puerto Rican eyes look to Cotto for the future. 

If he is feeling the weight of expectation, he does not show it. 

"Fighting is pressure," he said. "I like knowing that people expect a lot of me. I expect a lot of myself. I give 100% in every fight." 

He has some strict training principles, which include never watching an opponent's fights. "I hate to watch tapes," he said. "I believe in boxing you need to be prepared for anything and that's how I have always trained." 

Cotto must be doing something right. People in Puerto Rico have flocked to amateur contests and pro fights in which he has dispatched opponents, invariably within a few rounds. 

"I am recognised everywhere I go at home," he admitted. "But it doesn't bother me. I feel a warmth from people which gives me confidence. I love it when people come up and talk to me. I feel I have so many friends. That's the sort of person I have always been and I will always be that way." 

Cotto and his close friend, flyweight Ivan 'Iron Boy' Calderon (another must-watch talent), represented Puerto Rico in the 2000 Olympics. 

"I met Ivan when I was 12," said Cotto. "And, yes, we are very good friends. We actually fought each other. We both weighed around 100lbs and he beat me. So I stopped fighting him and we became best friends." 

The two attend each other's fights and similarly support one another's efforts outside of the ring. 

Cotto, who had a four-year run as the top amateur star in Puerto Rico, was inspired by his favourite fighters, Wilfredo Gomez and Wilfredo Benitez. Upon his return home, Cotto hosted a benefit for Benitez, who is suffering from pugilistic dementia. 

"You have to give something back," said Cotto. "Boxing gives me so much and Benitez ... well, a fighter like Benitez will never come by again. I have to help." 

Calderon was there, too. Boxing is their life. "God, my family and boxing," Cotto says of the guiding lights in his life. 

That was why his car accident was, as he says, such 'a fluke'. 

"I never go out. I am with my brother, or I am with Ivan or I am at home with my family, or I am at the gym." 

Although he is anticipating a busy career, he has no plans to move to the USA or train there. 

"I am very comfortable in Puerto Rico," he said. "It's my home. My city, Caguas, where I am from is like any big city. I don't feel I'm missing out on anything." 

It was in 1997, when Cotto won the bronze medal in the Central American tournament, then followed that with a gold medal in a regional tournament in Colombia, that the talk about him started. 

In 1998, he won the gold medal in the prestigious Pedro Julio Nolasco tournament in the Dominican Republic and the silver in the Pan American youth tournament in Mexico City. 

That same year, he also won the Youth World Championship. 

Not one for taking a breather, Cotto competed at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, winning the gold medal in the Jose Torres tournament in Puerto Rico. 

He was a natural for the Puerto Rico Olympic team, but dropped a very controversial decision to Mahamadkadyz Abdullaev in his first fight.

Abdullaev, from Uzbekistan, would go on to win the gold medal in the 140lbs category. 

Cotto has put the Olympic loss behind him, knowing other future stars of the professional code have suffered questionable losses in the amateur ranks. 

Married with three children, ages six, two and 11 months, Cotto loves being a father. 

"My two-year-old daughter is like a little mother to her two brothers," he says. "She is very loving. Very lovely. She's not bossy at all."

He wouldn't mind if any of his kids took up boxing. 

"If it is truly what they wanted, as long as they are following their hearts, I would have no problem with it. That's all that is important to me. If they are happy, then they have my blessings and my support. That's how my family has always treated me."