It’s 4th of July and while today’s Sunday Punch doesn’t have any American boxers in it to be all patriotic, it does have fireworks in the ring and that should be good enough!
On September 24th, 2005, WBO junior welterweight champion Miguel Cotto took on Colombia’s Ricardo Torres at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Cotto was supposed to face Italy’s Gianluca Branco as part of an HBO doubleheader headlined by Wladimir Klitschko against Samuel Peter. Branco withdrew and Torres stepped up on three weeks’ notice. Because of his heavily padded record against underwhelming (at best) local opposition in Colombia, the expectation was Cotto would get the W without much trouble.