Although his next bout isn't scheduled until June, it appears former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto is already back in the gym. Cotto, a two-division world champion in boxing and still one of the top welterweights in the world, stepped inside of a cage to spar with elite mixed martial artist and former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres.
In this extremely short 10-second video, one can see that Cotto isn't exactly the svelte 145 pounds he weighed in at during his last bout, a disappointing 12th round TKO loss to pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao, but he appears to have kept himself in fairly decent shape. With Cotto making the move up to the 154-pound division to challenge WBA champion Yuri Foreman on June 12th, making weight shouldn't be an issue, however, he probably won't be quite as ripped as he was as a welterweight.
Obviously, ten seconds of video footage isn't a lot to determine exactly how a sparring session played out, particularly one that was being shot for a commercial promo, however, if the 3-punch combination that Miguel Torres landed is any indication, perhaps it's not so crazy to believe that a mixed martial artist could have some success inside of a boxing ring. Of course, the same can also be said for a boxer inside of a cage, as Cotto also showed off some new wrestling skills he picked up from UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino. In this footage, Cotto actually pulls off a takedown, although it didn't look quite as impressive as the combination that Torres threw.
Much more footage is expected to be released in the near future.
FULL INTERVIEW WITH MIGUEL COTTO COMING SOON...
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]