title: Asura's Wrath

text: The third-person action sequences resemble "beat 'em up" style gameplay where the player must defeat enemies in close combat, utilizing light and heavy attacks, counters, dashes, and projectiles. While regular light attacks are fast, heavier attacks inflict more damage and can throw back multiple enemies yet can overheat requiring a cool-down period between uses. Players can also perform counter moves if they input the current prompt during an enemy's attack. When an enemy is knocked down, special moves can be performed that further help fills the burst gauge. If however the player character is knocked back, they have a chance to quickly recover by landing on their feet and saving additional health. The rail shooter portion of the gameplay involves the player character moving yet on a fixed axis, being only able to move to dodge and maneuver against incoming attack and obstacles, all the while locking on and firing upon enemies.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: The interactive cutscene element is integrated with the gameplay, however. Correct inputs when prompted will advance the story while failure can cause the restart of a sequence and damage to health in a previous gameplay sequence. While a few sequences may continue regardless, certain quick-time events have degrees of success where the player may attempt to press at an even more specific time than when the prompt immediately and initially appears. For example, a press too early or later might register a merely "good" or "great" while the exact correct moment will register as "excellent". The player's performance in this aspect, along with the time taken to complete and overall damage inflicted is graded at the end of each episode, with the highest grade being an "S Rank". At least 5 S Ranks or completing 50 episodes unlock the final hidden "true ending" of the game.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Each level is played out like an episode more akin to an anime television series, with subtle introductory and closing credits at the start and end of each episode. This is then followed by a brief promo with cut together footage for the next episode, along with a narration recapping and foreshadowing upcoming events. In between episodes, there are also snippets of additional narrative and back story that are presented in the form of a series of illustrations, with each different segment drawn by a different credited artist. The entire "series" is split into four chapters, each cutscene is overlaid with lengthier production credits.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: The story takes place on Gaea, a world inhabited by human tribes, supernaturals, and gods. The game opens as the world is under attack by a demonic, destructive race known as the Gohma. Attempting to "purify" Gaea of their presence, the group of powerful and technologically advanced god-like cyborgs known as the Eight Guardian Generals, commanded by Emperor Strada of the nation of Shinkoku, lead an immense fleet of warships to fight the Gohma. The protagonist Asura is one of these generals along with his mentor Augus, his rival/brother-in-law Yasha, and his allies Olga, Sergei, Wyzen, Kalrow and Deus, the leader of the generals. As the generals engage in battle with the Gohma, Asura's daughter Mithra acts as the priestess of Shinkoku to empower him and the other generals through the power of Mantra, a cosmic energy collected with the prayers of their human worshipers and distilled through Mithra. The generals eventually confront the Gohma's source Vlitra, who literally tears open the planet when it reveals itself. While only subdued by Asura, the generals claim victory over Vlitra. Back on Gaea, Asura reunites with Mithra and his wife and Yasha's sister Durga before he is summoned by the Emperor only to find him dead upon arrival, the arriving guards accusing him of regicide and treason. A distraught Asura flees the palace after being forced to defend himself from Wyzen, returning to find Durga fatally wounded, revealing Mithra was kidnapped before she dies in his arms. Asura eventually locates Mithra, who is guarded by the other generals, but he is sent to his death by Deus, who reveals himself as the Emperor's murderer and claims he will use Mithra to "save the world".


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Asura finds himself in the limbo of Naraka, where a mysterious Golden Spider goads him into regaining his memories and climbing back into the mortal world. When he returns, 12,000 years have passed and Gaea has become a barren wasteland, with the Gohma still causing destruction across the planet. He soon confronts Wyzen, who claims that the remaining generals have become the Seven Deities through the power of Mantra, which they collect with the souls of their worshipers. Filled with rage upon remembering his past, Asura channels Mantra on his own a feat the Deities thought impossible and destroys Wyzen in a long battle at the cost of his arms. However, Yasha arrives and easily kills Asura, sinking his body into molten lava.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Another 500 years pass and Asura's body has been excavated and worshiped by a small village, coming back to life as he encounters a young girl resembling Mithra. Not long after, Kalrow arrives and begins blatantly killing humans for Mantra. Asura manages to destroy Kalrow's fleet, learning from Kalrow that Deus intends to wipe out the Gohma for good, before crushing the pleading deity to death inside his own escape pod. Following this, Asura falls back to earth where he encounters Augus, who convinces him to drink and relax in a hot spring before they duel on the moon. Though Augus has the upper hand and impales Asura with his sword, Asura manages to break the sword, grabs the broken half with his teeth and uses it to gut Augus, who dies satisfied with the duel. Asura returns to the village with the girl from before, but it is bombarded by another fleet led by Olga. While Asura survives, he discovers the girl has been killed; overwhelmed with rage, Asura transforms into a demonic version of himself powerful enough to wipe out most of the armada. Olga then resorts to using the deities' planet sized super-weapon, the Brahmastra, but Yasha tries to stop the weapon from firing, believing that the thousands of souls used to power it would be wasted on Asura. He manages to stop the weapon in mid-fire, but Asura goes missing in the blast.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Following his actions, Deus orders Yasha, under the supervision of Sergei, to strike at the Gohma attacking a human city. Despite Yasha's best efforts to purify the Gohma and halt their advance, Sergei bombards both them and the city for more souls. As Yasha has commanded from space most of the time, he only now realizes the needless mass slaughter of humans for Mantra. Asura then reappears, still consumed by rage, and kills Sergei, but not before he reveals himself as Durga's murderer, something Yasha knew all along, yet still chose to side with Deus. Realizing Asura has become uncontrollable with rage, Yasha manages to subdue him and revert him back to his normal state as the two of them travel to Deus's ship. They confront Deus, where Yasha states that the deities' cause is worthless if trillions had to die in the process while also at the cost of Mithra's own suffering, shown to be drained of the Mantra she can collect and manipulate. Deus explains that he only betrayed the Emperor when he brushed off Deus's concerns over Vlitra's inevitable return. Both Asura and Yasha battle Deus and barely manage to defeat him. Before he dies, Deus claims with his last breath that only he could save Gaea, whereupon Vlitra returns once more, larger and more powerful than before. Asura and Yasha charge into battle against Vlitra despite being greatly outclassed, but Mithra aids them through Mantra empowerment, allowing them to break into Vlitra's center and destroy its core. While Asura does not know if it was truly defeated, he and Yasha return to Deus's ship and reunite with Mithra.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: In the subsequent DLC Episodes, Olga reappears, unhinged by Deus's death, and attempts to kill Mithra in front of Asura and Yasha. However, the Golden Spider intervenes and kills Olga before taking residence in Mithra's body, sealing her away while revealing his true formChakravartin, the Lord of Creation. Chakravartin states that it was he who unleashed the Gohma upon Gaea in order to test Asura as a worthy inheritor of Gaea. Asura and Yasha attack Chakravartin only to find themselves outmatched and sent falling back to the planet, with Chakravartin proclaiming he will destroy the world and remake it once more. Settling things with Asura in a final duel, Yasha sacrifices himself to give his friend his Mantra Core and the Brahmastra's Mantra Reactor, allowing Asura to channel and control Mantra without destroying his body. Chakravartin fires a doomsday blast at Gaea but Asura deflects it after he flies into space and assumes a massive, near-godly form called Asura the Destructor. Asura engages Chakravartin in a battle that causes the very fabric of time and space to come apart with all of creation, eventually bringing down Chakravartin by sheer force of will. Before Asura can finish him, Mithra breaks free and urges him to stop, she warns him if Chakravartin is killed, all mantra and mantra-powered beings will cease to exist, including Asura himself. Asura chooses to destroy Chakravartin nonetheless, satisfied so long as Mithra can live free from danger. As the landscape around him collapses, Asura shares his final words with Mithra and vanishes, finally free of wrath. Mithra returns to Gaea, where she integrates with the surviving humans, spending many years recounting the tales of her father to the mortal children on Gaea.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: The epilogue fast-forwards to 870 million years later, where a society resembling the present-day has arisen. Asura is immortalized in the form of a great statue resembling the Statue of Liberty, sitting in the bay outside a large city resembling New York City. Asura, Durga, Mithra, and the others have all been reincarnated as humans, living out happy lives still remarkably similar to their old incarnations: an angry father (Asura) beats up a fat pedestrian (Wyzen) for accidentally knocking his daughter (Mithra) over, his wife (Durga) gently scolds her husband while the daughter admires her father's strength and fearlessness. A police officer (Chun-Li) chases an old man speeding along on a Segway (Kalrow) beneath a billboard showing off a video from a famous singer and model (Sergei). A Japanese man (Augus) tries to find a Japanese restaurant, but struggles to communicate with the locals. A rich businessman (Deus) opts to be late for an important meeting in order to help an old man (Strada) cross the street, while scolding his secretary (Olga) for trying to rush them along. The family meets up with the brooding uncle (Yasha) who still has issues with the angry fool his sister married, the subject of an ongoing rivalry between the brothers-in-law. As the family is reunited for a day on the town, a giant meteor appears in the sky and begins hurtling towards the city. While the others flee for shelter, the now-mortal Asura steps out into the middle of the street, bracing himself and clenching his fists, prepared to fight once again.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: "Asura's Wrath" began development in 2007. The development team wanted to create a game that everyone could understand. In an interview, Hiroshi Matsuyama commented on the principles behind the game's creation: "Our main concept was that we wanted to reach out to audiences all over the world with Asura's Wrath. That's why we focused on wrath as our main concept. It's something that anybody can relate to. It's an emotion that's very powerful. It's sometimes seen as negative, but it can be a driving force that helps you overcome any obstacle. When we came up with this backward approach to the development process, first we thought of our focus on wrath, then focused on the story, so we built the story first. Who wrote the story? CyberConnect 2 did, as a group. It was a group effort throughout the dev team, but when we had the story, we passed that on to an actual scriptwriter." In a different interview with Eurogamer, he stated that he was pleased by the site's impression of the game as "completely deranged" and went further into the game's core theme: "In Japanese entertainment and comics, and in games as well, there are many interesting depictions of wrath already – things like Dragon Ball and Naruto – and we love those kinds of comics and games. So we thought, what can we do if we really, really focus on that? How interesting can we make it? That was our challenge to ourselves." The hot spring scene, a very traditional scene for manga and anime in Japanese culture according to Matsuyama, was deliberately placed as a change of pace and a chance for Asura to show a different face to players.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: The game was developed on the Unreal Engine 3, which was specially licensed by Capcom for the task, and aided significantly in the development of the game. In an interview, Kazuhiro Tsuchiya stated that "We tried a lot of different options and determined that Unreal Engine 3 was a perfect solution. Our developers were able to review the game in real time, and they continue to be productive throughout the process." "Asura's Wrath" was first announced during the Tokyo Game Show in September 2010. The announcement trailer showed the title character battle multiple enemies before being confronted by a planetary sized foe. The trailer showed an earlier build that differed from the finished product in multiple aspects. While the character designs and Asian-style art design were similar, even identical in certain regards, the tone and combat was more violent and bloody, showing a greater emphasis on the combat mechanics rather the interactive cinematic features. Following its reveal, Tsuchiya revealed that he felt the game would serve to satisfy fans wanting a sequel to the 2006 PlayStation 2 game "God Hand", which was lauded by critics, but failed commercially. He was later pleased that people had seen the deliberate similarities between the two games. A playable demo was released on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network on January 10, 2012.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Downloadable content includes a two-dimensional fighting mode using the "Street Fighter IV" engine, as well as two characters from the game, Ryu/Evil Ryu and Akuma/Oni as opponents. Also, "untold" chapters are included and use hand-drawn animation with quick time events, mostly to fill gaps between the game's chapters. The DLC also allows players to play and see the 'real' ending of the game which is not available from the disc.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: The game's original soundtrack is scored by Chikayo Fukuda, and was released on March 7, 2012. A track listing has been provided in Japanese. In addition to the lead recording artist, other composers and pieces of music outside of development were involved. Chikayo Fukuda composed the main theme and its variation, entitled "In Your Belief" while the vocalized version was sung by Tomoyo Mitani. The game also featured Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E Minor From the New World in the set piece battle between Asura and Augus on the moon.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: The game was received positively by the Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu". The magazine gave the game scores of 10, 10, 9, and 9, each out of 10, adding up to a total of 38 out of 40.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: When released in the Western market, the game received "average" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Many critics praised the story and highlighted the "interactive anime" style as a positive, while others felt it detracted from regular gameplay. In a review for "G4TV", Alex Rubens in regards to the episodic narratives stated "I found myself anticipating the next episode as if it were my favorite TV show, making me want to jump right back in and play even more", going on to detail that the story "manages to keep from being predictable by the sheer craziness of the twists that [it] takes." "TeamXbox" praised the overall presentation as "the best adaptation of the Anime episode structure ever in a videogame", that is suited the characters and overarching narrative. Brad Shoemaker of "Giant Bomb" praised the game's over the top spectacle, in that the "sheer craziness isn't enough; it's also about the way the craziness is presented. The visuals have a tremendous scale, and the action is masterfully framed by someone who really knows how to work a camera angle."


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Critical response to the balance between the "interactive anime" style and gameplay was mixed. Jeff Cork of "Game Informer" commented that "the combat may not be as deep as other hack and slash offerings, but it does a great job of making Asura feel (and play) like the unhinged demigod", in which he felt the story was the focus rather than the combat, finding it "a nice change of pace from other hack-and-slash games, featuring an interesting story that’s not blocked off by insurmountable difficulty." Keza MacDonald of IGN stated that this unique element was "self-evidently, an excellent thing – and a rare one, if you've been playing games for a long time", praising the presentation in particular, in her opinion calling "Asura's Wrath" "one of the greatest achievements in Japanese animation in a very long time". Despite this, however, she responded negatively to the longevity, concluding that "as an episodic download release Asura's Wrath would be brilliant, but as a premium-priced game it can only be recommended with strong reservations." In a more critical review, Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot called the reliance on quick-time events "uninspired" and a "distraction", while also being critical of the difficulty of the combat, in a statement saying, "There's no challenge; no enemies that put up an engaging fight. It's all very safe." GameTrailers echoed this view saying that if approached as a game, "Asura's Wrath" will leave you wanting, but as a piece of multimedia, it's intriguing.


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Luciano Howard of "The Digital Fix" gave the PS3 version nine out of ten and stated, "Its presentation is fabulous, with letterboxing where needed, colourful and bountiful art and animation, a mix of pastel shading and traditional game colouring mixed together plus awesome sound quality and variation, especially when considering the music which stands out, head and shoulders above the effects. The scale of action is spectacular with opponents larger than a planet and stronger than a god." Liam Martin of "Digital Spy" gave the same console version four stars out of five and said it was "undoubtedly a niche title, and the lack of extended player input will leave some feeling a little short changed. For those with an appreciation of Eastern animation and quirky video games, however, "Asura's Wrath" is one of the more intriguing releases of this year, not to mention this console generation." David Jenkins of "Metro" gave both console versions seven out of ten, calling them "A wonderfully imaginative and beautifully presented interactive anime, but one that cannot maintain a regular enough supply of surprises to justify even its short running time."


title: Asura's Wrath

text: Adam Larck of "411Mania" gave the Xbox 360 version 6.4 out of 10 and stated, "While it may be different from most games, "Asura's Wrath" shows that games can be more about storytelling than the game, or at least more of a balance than mainly gameplay with a few cut scenes here and there. Given the shortness of the game, it's at least worth a check out on the weekend, if nothing else." Justin Clouse of "The Escapist" gave the same console version three stars out of five, calling it "a novel idea with some poor implementation. It often feels strained into too many directions, but there is something undeniably fun about certain outrageous moments. There really isn't much else quite like "Asura's Wrath"." Russ Fischer of "The A.V. Club" gave the PS3 version a C+ and said that it "plays like a tale designed to be experienced in one go. Still, Asura's glowing weak spot is utterly prosaic: price. At $10 or even $20, this could be approached as a diverting experiment. At $60, it's an elixir for only the most obsessive fans of anime storytelling and unusual game design."


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Miguel Ángel Cotto Vázquez (born October 29, 1980) is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2017. He is a multiple-time world champion, and the first Puerto Rican boxer to win world titles in four weight classes, from light welterweight to middleweight. In 2007 and 2009, he reached a peak active pound for pound ranking of seventh by "The Ring" magazine. Cotto started out his career as a hard-hitting pressure fighter, but evolved over the years into a more refined boxer-puncher as he moved up in weight.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: As an amateur, Cotto represented Puerto Rico in the lightweight and light welterweight divisions at various international events, including the 1999 Pan American Games, the 2000 Olympics, and the 1998 Junior World Championships; the latter in which he won a lightweight silver medal. Having begun his professional career in 2001, Cotto defeated Kelson Pinto for the WBO light welterweight title in 2004. He made six successful defenses before vacating the title to move up in weight. In his first welterweight fight, in 2006, Cotto defeated Carlos Quintana for the vacant WBA title. He successfully defended it four times before a career first loss to Antonio Margarito in 2008. The following year, Cotto won the vacant WBO welterweight title and defended it once before losing it to Manny Pacquiao in the same year.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: In 2010, he moved up to light middleweight and won the WBA title from Yuri Foreman. Having been promoted by the WBA to Super champion status, Cotto won a 2011 rematch against Margarito. He lost the WBA (Super) title in 2012 to Floyd Mayweather Jr., in one of the most anticipated fights in modern boxing history. The year would end on a further sour note for Cotto, as he lost in an upset to Austin Trout. Two years later, Cotto defeated Sergio Martínez to win the unified WBC, "Ring", and lineal middleweight titles. In doing so, he became the first four-weight world champion from Puerto Rico. In 2015, he defended his titles once before losing to Canelo Álvarez. After more than a year of inactivity, Cotto returned in 2017 to become the WBO light middleweight champion, but lost the title in his final fight to Sadam Ali.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Puerto Rican parents, and relocated to Caguas, Puerto Rico, with his family before he turned two. There are several figures linked to boxing in his family, including his late father Miguel Cotto Sr., his brother José Miguel Cotto, his second cousin Abner Cotto, and his uncle and former boxing trainer Evangelista Cotto. Cotto began boxing as a child to help lose weight, not anticipating it to end up being his career path. He was taken to the Bairoa Gym in Caguas. There, he was able to develop into a top amateur fighter.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: The young Cotto participated in several international tournaments, these include: The 1998 Junior World Championships that took place in Buenos Aires, where he finished in second place while competing in the Lightweight division. His three victories here were by points, the results were: Andrey Kolevin of Ukraine by points 15–3, Dana Laframboise of Canada by points 6–1, and Darius Jasevicius representing Lithuania 9–5. His only loss was to Anton Solopov of Russia by points with a score of 8–9. In 1999, Cotto competed in the Pan American Games that took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He only fought once in a loss to Dana Laframboise of Canada by points with a final score of 2–5. Following his participation in the Pan American tournament, Cotto was part of the Boxing World Championships in Houston, Texas. He lost his only fight by points to Robertas Nomeikas. In his final amateur tournament, Cotto represented Puerto Rico as a Light Welterweight at 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where he lost to Mahamadkadir Abdullayev of Uzbekistan by points. Cotto decided to turn professional after the loss to Abdulaev, ending his amateur career with a record of 125–23.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Early in his career Cotto defeated former world title contender John Brown by decision in the tenth round. He led the score through the entire fight and scored a knockdown in the second round. The judges gave Cotto scores of 100–89, 100–89, and 100–88.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: In 2001, Cotto suffered a dangerous injury that threatened his boxing career. As he was driving to the gymnasium at 5 a.m., he apparently fell asleep and crashed, breaking his arm and requiring hospitalization.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On September 13, 2003, Cotto defeated Demetrio Ceballos by knockout in the seventh round at Las Vegas. In a fight where Cotto injured Ceballos with numerous combinations in the sixth round, switching between the orthodox and southpaw stances. In the seventh round Cotto displayed an aggressive style that led to the referee stopping the fight with 0:32 remaining in the round. With this, he was ranked number one in his division by the World Boxing Association.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto's first fight of 2004, was a fourth-round knockout victory over the former world title contender Victoriano Sosa. This was after an eventful week prior to the fight, which included Cotto having to wait four hours for his luggage to arrive (after a 2 a.m. local time arrival) at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, and almost being removed from the Mandalay Bay Hotel, where the fight was held, by a security guard who thought he was an unaccompanied minor.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On April 8, 2004, he defeated the former world title challenger, Lovemore N'dou, by unanimous decision in Las Vegas. The first three rounds of the fight had a slow pace with neither of the boxers establishing control of the fight. Cotto dominated the fourth and fifth rounds managing to land combinations on N'dou's head. N'dou won the seventh and eighth rounds after landing more accurate hits than Cotto. The last three rounds were even with both fighters establishing short periods of control in the fight. The judges gave Cotto scores of 117–111, 116–112, and 115–113.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On September 11, 2004, Cotto faced Kelson Pinto from Brazil, for the vacant World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title. This represented the third fight between them, with Pinto being victorious in their two previous encounters, both of which took place while they were still amateurs. The fight was televised by HBO from San Juan, Puerto Rico. During this card Cotto utilized a defensive stance with his hands in a high position instead of his usual aggressive orthodox stance. Over the course of the fight Cotto scored three knockdowns and won the World Boxing Organization Junior Welterweight Championship by knockout in the sixth round.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On December 11, 2004, he successfully defended his title, beating former world champion Randall Bailey by knockout in the sixth round, as part of the Vitali Klitschko-Danny Williams undercard in Las Vegas. Cotto's performance was described as a result of hand speed and accuracy. During the fight Bailey received punches in his face that opened cuts over and under both of his eyes. As a result of the cuts Bailey was examined by the ringside physician. Following this Bailey expressed that he didn't want to continue and the referee stopped the fight at 1:39 of the sixth round. Eleven days later, on December 22, 2004, the Puerto Rican boxing commission named Cotto as Puerto Rico's fighter of the year for 2004.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto's second title defense took place on February 26, 2005, in the Rubén Rodríguez in Bayamón, Puerto Rico against Demarcus Corley. During the fight Cotto practiced a boxing style that was more aggressive than usual, trading hits with Corley over the course of the first round. During the fight both boxers were deducted one point following illegal low blows. Cotto scored three knockdowns before the fight was stopped by the referee at 2:45 of the fifth round following a combination by Miguel. Corley claimed that the referee stopped the fight prematurely stating that "the ref just stopped the fight premature. If he wanted to stop the fight, he could have stopped it when I had [Cotto] hurt." Just a few days after retaining the crown versus Corley, Cotto received a personal blow, when his stablemate and friend, former 2004 Olympian Joseph Serrano, was shot in the head upon leaving the Bairoa gym. Serrano survived the shot, but was in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On June 11, 2005, Cotto faced the last man to beat him as an amateur, former Olympic gold medalist Mohamed Abdulaev from Uzbekistan. As amateurs, Abdulaev eliminated Cotto from the first round of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. This time they met as professionals in New York City's Madison Square Garden. Before the beginning of the fight Cotto received a positive ovation from the public. During the first round Miguel went on the offensive scoring hits on Abdullaev's head and body while he was in a defensive stance. In the fourth round a left hook by Miguel hurt Abdullaev, who proceeded to focus his hits on Cotto's body. Abdullaev's offense was effective in the sixth and seventh rounds and as a result of this Cotto assumed a defensive stance. Following the eighth round Abdullaev's eye was swollen to the point of being almost entirely closed. In the ninth round following accurate punches by Cotto the fight's referee paused the fight and asked the ringside doctor to examine Abdullaev's eye. After being examined by the doctor Abdullaev indicated to the referee that he could not continue, this way Cotto retained the Welterweight division championship.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto's third championship defense took place on September 24, 2005, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, against Ricardo Torres of Colombia. In the first round Cotto had an offensive advantage and scored a knockdown on Torres. In the second round after trading hits Torres scored a knockdown on Miguel. The last seconds of the round were evenly matched with both boxers finishing the round injured. Cotto was apparently in better condition when the third round began and was dominating the fight at that point. With two minutes remaining in the round one of Cotto's punches landed in Torres' beltline. Following this Torres was granted thirty seconds to recover by the referee. Cotto dominated the fourth round and Torres won the fifth. Cotto won and scored a knockdown in the sixth round. At 1:24 of the seventh round a left hook by Cotto knocked Torres out.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On March 4, 2006, Cotto defended his WBO Junior Welterweight title by knocking out Gianluca Branco, who had to give up during the eighth round of their bout due to a shoulder injury. Cotto dominated the fight as a result of jab combinations in a card that took place in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto's next scheduled match was against the then-undefeated Paul Malignaggi in a fight that took place on June 10, 2006, in Madison Square Garden. Cotto opened a cut over Malignaggi's right eye in the first round, which, according to Malignaggi, affected his performance over the course of the fight, by stating "this was the first time in which I was cut, and the blood kept going into my eye. And it bothered me the entire fight. I was not able to see very well. Cotto's a great fighter, but I'm disappointed, as I wanted to be the champion". Cotto won the fight by unanimous decision with scores of 116–111, 116–111, and 115–112. Malignaggi suffered a fractured right orbital bone and his jaw was injured, he was taken to Roosevelt Hospital after the fight's outcome was announced.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto relinquished his title in late 2006 and announced his intention to move to the welterweight division to challenge Carlos Quintana for the WBA's championship. The fight took place on December 2, 2006. Cotto defeated Quintana by technical knockout in the fifth round. Following a punch to the body, Quintana surrendered prior to the start of the sixth round and Cotto won the vacant World Boxing Association Welterweight Championship. Cotto's Welterweight reign began successfully on March 3, 2007, when he retained his belt with a technical knock out victory in the eleventh round over Oktay Urkal. Urkal's corner threw in the towel because he was apparently down in the fight, and had just had a second point deducted for a head butt, leading to his corner's belief that the referee was unfair.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On June 9, 2007, Cotto defended the WBA Welterweight Title against Zab Judah in New York City, performing before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden. The bout included a knockdown and a point deduction registered for Cotto, who established dominance on the offensive following a close start. At the moment of the stoppage, the judges had Cotto leading 97–91. Cotto won by technical knockout in the eleventh round when the referee stopped the fight.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley fought on November 10, 2007, at Madison Square Garden in a card made possible by a legal settlement between Top Rank Boxing, Cotto's promoter, and Mosley's promoter, Golden Boy Promotions. The fight was broadcast on HBO Pay-Per-View and was won by Cotto via unanimous decision. During the course of the fight Cotto pursued Mosley who was reacting in a slow fashion. Late in the fight Mosley displayed more aggression at one point becoming the aggressor. Cotto's performance was described as "a rare moment in sports when a sudden star rises from what is categorically termed as goodness, to the cusp of greatness." On April 12, 2008, Cotto successfully defended the championship against Alfonso Gómez. Throughout the fight Cotto scored three knockdowns before the fight was stopped following the fifth round, when the doctor indicated to the referee that Gómez couldn't continue. Cotto was selected the World Boxing Association's "Boxer of the Year", during the organization's annual award celebration, which took place in Buenos Aires.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On July 26, 2008, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Cotto suffered his first loss as a professional to Antonio Margarito in an unsuccessful title defense. Cotto had taken the early initiative, frequently landing a series of punches on Margarito during the early rounds while using his footwork to avoid danger. However, Margarito presented constant offensive pressure of Cotto and eventually began to wear down Cotto's resistance by trapping him against the ropes. Cotto was hurt in the seventh round after a pair of Margarito uppercuts caused his nose to bleed. Margarito continued to chase his opponent down and inflicted further damage towards the end of the tenth round. Margarito then threw a series of punches at the start of the eleventh round, with Cotto against the ropes and bleeding profusely. A combination from Margarito finally forced Cotto to his knee. He got up, but Margarito continued landing combinations. Evangelista Cotto threw in the towel after Cotto again fell to the canvas in the corner of the ring. Two judges had Margarito ahead by a score of 96–94 at the time of the stoppage, while the third judge had the fight even. HBO analyst Harold Lederman had also scored the fight even. Cotto's loss to Margarito has since come under suspicion due to Margarito's subsequent attempted use of illegal hand-wraps in a fight against Shane Mosley.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto returned to action on February 21, 2009, in a card held at the Madison Square Garden, sporting the first of his trademark tattoos which he has expanded on ever since. This time competing against Michael Jennings for the vacant WBO welterweight title. After both pugilists used the first round to study their opponent's style, the tempo accelerated during the second. In the third, Cotto pursued the offensive more fluidly, connecting with jabs and hooks. One round later, Cotto scored two knockdowns on Jennings, who was able to continue until the recess. In the fifth, Jennings was trapped against the ropes, which Cotto utilized to connect a right hook to score a third knockdown. Jennings incorporated, but the referee decided to stop the fight. With this action, Cotto was awarded a technical knockout victory, in the process winning his second championship in the welterweight division. On April 8, 2009, Cotto fired his uncle from the team's staff, following a violent discussion where his property was damaged. However, neither side expressed interest in pursuing any sort of legal action. Consequently, Cotto named Joe Santiago, who had served as the team's nutritionist as his new trainer.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: At an official press conference on April 14, 2009, in New York, it was announced that Cotto would be defending his title against Ghanaian boxer Joshua Clottey, in a fight that was originally intended to be an unification that also included the International Boxing Federation's title on June 13, 2009. An attendance of 17,734 packed Madison Square Garden in New York City. In the first round Cotto scored a knockdown after connecting a jab. In the third round an accidental head clash opened a severe laceration over Cotto's left eye. The injury bled profusely during the fourth round, but he was able to control the pace. In the fifth round, Clottey was pushed to the floor during an exchange and was injured in his left knee, receiving time to recover before the contest resumed. In the sixth, Cotto trapped Clottey in a corner and gained offensive advantage. During the next two rounds, Clottey controlled the offensive, noticing that Cotto was unable to see right punches. During the last rounds, Cotto decided to employ his technique from outside, while the fight's tempo remained close. The judges decided the fight's outcome by split decision, awarding scores of 115–112 and 116–111 for Cotto and 114–113 for Clottey. When the scorecards were read, Clottey shouted, "Oh no! This can't happen", then went over to Bob Arum and said, "That's it, I quit, I'm done with boxing. I can't take it anymore." Arum said he thought it was 'a magnificent fight and you have to continue.'


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Immediately after the Clottey fight, negotiations began to pursue a contest against Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2, 38 KOs). Even before Pacquiao defeated Ricky Hatton, Bob Arum, who represents both Cotto and Pacquiao, stated that he was interested in this matchup. Subsequently, Pacquiao expressed interest in fighting Cotto. The fight was sanctioned as a world title fight in the welterweight division, where the weight limit is 147 pounds, however Cotto's camp agreed to fight at a catchweight of 145 pounds to accommodate Pacquiao's smaller physique. Cotto's camp also conceded the larger share of the purse to Pacquiao, who received a 65% share of pay-per-view buys, compared to Cotto's 35% share.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On November 14, 2009, the fight took place in front of a sold-out crowd of 16,200 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Pacquiao defeated Cotto via TKO, 55 seconds into the 12th round, dethroning Cotto as a WBO welterweight champion. With the win, Pacquiao made history becoming the first ever seven-weight world champion. The fight generated 1.25 million buys and 70 million dollars in domestic pay-per-view revenue, making it the most watched PPV boxing event of 2009. Pacquiao earned around 22 million dollars for his part in the fight, whilst Cotto earned around 12 million dollars. The fight also generated a live gate of $8,847,550 from an official crowd of 15,930.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: After the Pacquiao fight, Cotto moved to the light middleweight division. On June 5, 2010, he fought against undefeated Israeli WBA light Middleweight Champion Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium in New York City. Bob Arum had said that if Cotto were to win, he would become a front runner to defend the WBA belt against Manny Pacquiao in November. Cotto stated that he would consider a return to the welterweight division, in case of an interesting fight. Cotto ended up knocking Foreman down with a signature left hook to the body in the ninth round, after Foreman tore his knee, Cotto, claiming the WBA light middleweight title, his fourth overall in three different weight divisions.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On January 19, 2011, in a press conference at Times Square, New York, Bob Arum and Don King, working together for the first time in five years, officially announced that Cotto would defend his WBA light middleweight title against former two-division world champion Ricardo Mayorga at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 12, 2011, live on Showtime PPV. In front of 7,247 at the MGM, Cotto defeated Mayorga via TKO in the 12th round, retaining his WBA light middleweight title. Throughout the fight, Mayorga looked to engage, however the discipline on Cotto played a big part in the win, saving his big shots for the final round. A left hook landed, which dropped Mayorga and ended the bout. At the time of stoppage, Cotto was ahead by five points on all three judges' scorecards. With the win, Cotto's record for world title fights improved to (17-2). Cotto earned $1 million from the fight and compubox stats showed that Cotto out punched Mayorga 249 to 176 in total punches. In the post-fight, Cotto explained how he won the fight, "The game plan was not to get caught up in any of his antics. He was very heavy handed, I felt his punches the whole fight." He also mentioned how before the last round, his trainer Emanuel Steward told him he would be able to stop Mayorga in the last round, which was the conclusion of the fight.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On July 30, 2011, it was announced that Cotto would make a second defence of his WBA title against rival Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs) in a rematch to their first fight, which took place in July 2008. The fight was set to take place at Madison Square Garden on December 3, 2011. The MGM Grand was also considered as a possible venue. At first, the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) denied Margarito a boxing license on October 31, 2011. The reason for the denial was not due to the cheating allegations, but instead due to the damage to Margarito's eye in the Manny Pacquiao fight. An appeal was filed and a hearing took place to where several leading eye doctors testified that Margarito should be allowed to fight. A final decision was expected on November 18, 2011. Without a license, Margarito could not fight in the state of New York. Arum initially stated that if Margarito was not licensed to fight, then Vanes Martirosyan would take his place on the card. However, Arum later stated that the fight would be moved to a venue in a state that Margarito holds a license. On November 18, 2011, the NYSAC did not make a final vote as expected. Instead, they ordered Margarito to be examined by their own doctor. Based on the findings of their own doctor, they would make a decision on whether Margarito received a license. The New York State Athletic Commission granted Antonio Margarito a license to box in New York after a hearing in Manhattan. A sold-out crowd of 21,239 was announced. Cotto avenged the defeat from 2008 stopping Margarito in the 10th round. The fight was stopped at the start of the 10th round because of the condition of Margarito's right eye, which was swollen shut. This was the same eye that was badly damaged in his fight with Pacquiao and the one that almost kept the New York State Athletic Commission from granting him his boxing license because of the special procedure that was performed on it in 2010. At the time of stoppage, Cotto lead 89–82 on all three judges' scorecards. For the fight, Cotto earned a minimum $5 million, the figure would increase due to PPV shares and Margarito earned $2.5 million.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On February 1, 2012, undefeated seven-time world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO's) announced that he would challenge Cotto for his WBA 'Super' light middleweight title at the MGM Grand on May 5, 2012. Mayweather took to Twitter, "I’m fighting Miguel Cotto on May 5th because Miss Pac Man is ducking me." He also claimed to have offered Pacquiao a guaranteed $40 million, with $20 million upfront. The last time Mayweather fought at 154 pounds was in 2007, in his win against Oscar De La Hoya. Mayweather came in at 151, while Cotto came in at 154 pounds. The fight started off with Cotto establishing himself as the fight's aggressor, but with Mayweather winning the first two rounds using effective counter-punching and body movement to block most of Cotto's punches. However, in the third round Cotto seemed to successfully swarm Mayweather and land decent flurries to steal himself the round. Then from rounds 4-9 the action was closely contested, with both fighters using their partially contrasting styles in attempts to one-up the other. Ultimately though, Mayweather managed to adjust to Cotto's new rhythm of attacking in flurries and used his now-newly tweaked counter-punching style to win a lot of the final rounds, in what people thought had secured Mayweather the decision victory. Cotto had Mayweather against the ropes many times, resulting in some damage and a lot of bleeding from Mayweather's nose. Cotto's eyes had some partial swelling. Mayweather won via unanimous decision with scores of 117–111, 117–111, and 118–110. The crowd booed loudly when the scores were read out.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto was humble in defeat, "The judges said I lost the fight; I can't do anything else. I'm happy with my fight and performance and so is my family. I can't ask for anything else." When they hugged at the end, Mayweather told Cotto, "You are a hell of a champion — the toughest guy I fought." Cotto landed 105 of 506 punches thrown (21%), while Mayweather landed 179 punches of 687 thrown (26%).


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On August 31, 2012, terms were agreed for Austin Trout to defend his WBA light middleweight title against Cotto on December 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 13,096 attended the Garden. Trout started the fight off fast, using his quick combinations to continually get his punches off first against Cotto. Trout also used his superior footwork to evade most of Cotto's punches, and was able to out muscle Cotto off the ropes when he was cornered in the fight. During the middle rounds, Cotto found success trapping Trout on the ropes and keeping him there, ripping Trout with body shots and finding the range with his left hook. Trout regained control in the later rounds, even backing Cotto up later in the fight, and stunned Cotto several times down the stretch with his straight left hand. Trout won the fight by a wide unanimous decision, giving him the biggest win of his career thus far. The judges' scores were 117–111, 117–111, and 119–109. Trout landed 238 of 779 punches (31%) and Cotto landed 183 of 628 punches thrown (29%). After the fight, Trout called out fellow light middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez. The fight averaged 1.047 million and peaked at 1.4 million viewers, which set a record for Showtime boxing.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On July 6, 2013, it was announced that Cotto would next fight light middleweight contender Delvin Rodríguez (28-6-3, 16 KOs) in a bout promoted by Top Rank. It would mark the first time Cotto would fight under the Top Rank banner since his contract expired in December 2011. Cotto recruited Hall of Famer Freddie Roach as head trainer. The bout was scheduled for October 5 with the venue likely being in Florida. The Amway Center in Orlando was later confirmed as the venue and the fight was made official on July 23 at the Disney Atrium. An attendance of 11,912 was announced. Cotto looked like the Cotto of old, by displaying an aggressive style early on in the fight and landing powerful body shots. One punch in his arsenal that was brought back to life, was the vicious left hook which he was known for in his days of dominance in the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions. The second round saw Cotto landing body shots at will and with less than 10 seconds left in the round he staggered Rodríguez with a sharp left hook. In the beginning of the third round, with Rodríguez still feeling the effects of the left hook at the end of round two, Cotto forced Rodríguez in to the ropes landed a left hook to the temple, followed by flurry of punches which knocked Rodríguez onto the canvas. The referee then stopped the fight and gave Cotto a third-round TKO victory. Over the course of the fight, Cotto landed 55 of 110 punches thrown (50%), 47 of which were power punches and Rodríguez landed 16 of his 68 thrown (24%). The fight averaged 1.555 million viewers on HBO, the highest rating for 2013.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: In February 2014, it was announced that Cotto would challenge WBC, "The Ring" and lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KOs) for the titles on June 7, 2014, in his first fight in the middleweight division at Madison Square Garden. Martinez was inactive for a year before the bout and had two separate surgeries performed on his right knee. Throughout the fight, journalists and fans alike, noticed Martinez was unable to bend, flex and support his own weight while moving in the ring. Martinez himself proclaimed that his knee had nothing to do with the outcome of the fight and his struggles were a result of a body shot. Cotto knocked Martinez down 3 times in the first round and once in the ninth round before Martinez retired on his stool before the tenth round, giving Cotto the win by ninth-round corner retirement. The attendance was announced 21,090 at the Garden. At the time of stoppage, all three judges had the fight 90–77 for Cotto. With the win, Cotto became the first Puerto Rican boxer to win world titles in four different weight classes. According to CompuBox Stats, Cotto landed 212 if 395 punches thrown and Martinez landed 100 of his 322 thrown.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto had a base purse of $3 million but guaranteed $7 million and Martinez was guaranteed $1.5 million, which could increase from PPV sales. Highlights were shown on regular HBO a week later and averaged 970,000, peaking at 1.126 million. The fight generated $20 million from 350,000 buys on HBO PPV. This was considered a disappointment as HBO projected the fight would do around a 500,000 buyrate. Bob Arum, Cotto's promoter stated the reason for a downfall in PPV buys was simply because there was too many of them. Martinez's promoter Lou DiBella added that there was a lot events that same weekend, which would have impact on the boxing event. The promotion did however make a profit due to the $4.7 million live gate.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: In March 2015, Cotto signed with Jay Z's Roc Nation Sports. In April they announced that Cotto would be making his first defence of his titles, after winning them nearly a year ago, against 34 year old former unified middleweight champion Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) on June 6, 2015, at the Barclays Center in New York. There was issues relating to weight for Geale, who already struggled to make the 160 pound limit previously. Cotto stated if he wanted the fight, he would need to accept a catch weight of 157 pounds. on the weigh in, Cotto weighed 153.6 pounds, whilst a weigh-drained Geale weighed in at the limit of 157 pounds. On fight night, Geale stepped on the HBO scales and weighed 182 pounds. After three one-sided rounds, Cotto knocked Geale down twice in the fourth round to retain his world titles. After the second knockdown, referee Harvey Dock asked Geale if he wanted to continue, in which Geale replied 'No', prompting Dock to wave off the fight at 1:28 into round 4. Compubox stats showed, at the time of stoppage, Cotto had landed 68 of 183 punches thrown (37%) and Geale landed 33 of 127 (26%).Gennady Golovkin was in attendance. In the post fight interview, Cotto said Canelo is next and if Golovkin is available after that, he would fight him. The fight was a success on HBO averaging 1.589 million viewers and peaked at 1.621 million viewers.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto lost to Saul "Canelo" Álvarez on November 21, 2015, via unanimous decision. The fight was close throughout as both boxers were cautious in their attacks, neither fighter was seriously hurt. As Cotto attacked with a jab the whole fight, and didn't sit down on his punches, instead deciding to employ movement. Álvarez responded with power punches, landing especially to the body. Both fighters showed iron chins, with Cotto repeatedly coming back after hard shots to the head. The scorecards at the end of the night were highly controversial as they did not show the competitiveness of the fight, with many boxing pundits having Álvarez winning by a round or two, others called it a draw. The official judges' scorecards read 119–109, 118–110, and 117–111 for Álvarez. ESPN.com had the fight much closer, but still scored it in favour of Álvarez at 115–113.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: According to CompuBox, Álvarez landed 155 of 484 punches (32 percent), and Cotto landed 129 of 629 (21 percent), with Álvarez landing the heavier blows and inflicting more damage. There was a fraction of the boxing world that felt Cotto won by both a small margin, while others felt he won decisively. Cotto left immediately after hearing the scorecards, with his team and family.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto did not attend the post-fight press conference, but Freddie Roach in his place stated that he believed his fighter won, by outscoring Álvarez and blocking many of his shots. Cotto later told reporters in Puerto Rico that he felt he won.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On November 17, 2015, in the week leading up to his fight with Alvarez, the WBC announced that they were withdrawing recognition of Cotto as their Middleweight World Champion. The WBC's reasoning was "After several weeks of communications, countless attempts and good faith time extensions trying to preserve the fight as a WBC World Championship, Miguel Cotto and his promotion did not agree to comply with the WBC Rules & Regulations, while Canelo Alvarez has agreed to do so." This meant that, though Cotto was stripped of his title, Alvarez still had the opportunity to win the championship. Cotto then stated publicly that the reason the WBC stripped him of his title was because he refused to pay their sanctioning fees, which he believed to be excessive.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: There were negotiations from January 2016 for a fight between Cotto and former four-weight division champion Juan Manuel Márquez. The main issue between both camps being the weight issue with Marquez looking to fight at no more than 147lbs and Cotto looking to fight at 155lb catchweight. Miguel Cotto Promotions told ESPN.com that negotiations had broke down on August 2 as both camps could not settle on what weight the fight would be at. Cotto still planning to return to the ring in December.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Miguel Cotto Promotions told Ringtv.com that a deal had been finalized for Cotto's ring return on February 25, 2017, against veteran American boxer James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs) at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on HBO PPV. This would be Cotto's first fight since a decision loss to Canelo Alvarez in November 2015. It would also be Kirkland's first fight since May 2015 where he was knocked out by Alvarez. The contracts were signed and the fight was agreed on December 13, 2016, for an agreed catchweight of 153 pounds. The fight was postponed on February 2, after Kirkland cut his nose, this was later revealed as a fracture, eventually cancelling the card.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On May 18, 2017, sources confirmed that Cotto had parted ways with promoter Roc Nation Sports. One of the main reasons for the split was due to not having an opponent lined up even though he mentioned 2017 would be his last year in the sport and he would like to have had two fights. A fight with Japanese boxer Yoshihiro Kamegai (27-3-2, 24 KOs) was penciled in for June 24, but fell through. HBO also did not back the fight.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On May 31, 2017, it was announced that Cotto signed a multi fight deal with Golden Boy Promotions. Part of the deal included to showcase Miguel Cotto Promotions developing prospects, revitalize boxing in Puerto Rico as well as co-promote Cotto's upcoming fights. Golden Boy would also televise fights from Puerto Rico, something that hadn't been done in 2003, live on ESPN.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: On May 20, Cotto started working with Golden Boy Promotions to finalize a deal against Yoshihiro Kamegai (27-3-2, 24 KOs). Miguel Cotto Promotions Executive Hector Soto said a deal should be finalized in the coming week. On May 24, it was announced a deal was made for a fight between Cotto and Kamegai to take place on August 26, 2017, at the StubHub Center in Carson, California live on HBO. This would be Cotto's 23rd appearance on the network. It was confirmed that vacant WBO light middleweight championship would be at stake, the title was vacated by Canelo Álvarez, who moved up to middleweight. A day after signing a deal with Golden Boy, Cotto revealed that he would fight again on December 2, 2017. Cotto weighed 153.6 pounds for the fight with Kamegai coming in slightly heavier at 153.8 pounds. Cotto reiterated that he would retire on December 31, 2017. In front of 7,689 st the StubHub, Cotto defeated Kamegai via unanimous decision after 12 rounds to claim the vacant WBO light middleweight title and became a 6-time world champion. The three judges scored the fight 120–108, 119–109, and 118–110 all in favour of Cotto. Kamegai gave a good effort but fell short every time he would connect with a punch, Cotto would counter with a combination of his own. Cotto spent the early rounds backed against the ropes on the back foot and still managed to do some damage landing hooks to the head of Kamegai. After round 10, Cotto started boxing on the outside and decided to settle for a decision win, he explained in the post-fight, "I think I did my best and I'm happy with my performance. (Kamegai) is a tough fighter. By the fifth or sixth round, I knew I was not going to be able to stop him." Cotto confirmed he would fight again in December, preferably the winner of Canelo-GGG. The fight, which took place on HBO averaged 730,000 viewers and peaked 805,000 viewers. The fight ended before the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight started on Showtime PPV.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: In September 2017, former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux made himself available as Cotto's final opponent, which would take place on December 2, 2017, on HBO at Madison Square Garden. According to a source, regardless of who Cotto fights, Lemieux would still appear on the card. Also in September, three-weight world champion Mikey Garcia took to social media and called out Cotto for a fight in December. On September 21, he reiterated his desire to move up to 154 to be Cotto's final foe. Cotto's trainer was also open for the fight to take place. On October 7, ESPN reported that terms were agreed for Cotto's final fight against former Olympian and world welterweight title challenger Sadam Ali (25-1, 14 KOs) to take place on December 2 at Madison Square Garden. Information in regards to the contracted weight of the fight wasn't discussed at this point. Cotto weighed 151.6 pounds, the lightest he had weighed eight years. Ali came in at 153 pounds.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: In a surprising upset, in front of 12,391 mostly Puerto Rican fans, Cotto lost his final bout of his career via a 12-round unanimous decision. The three judges' scorecards read 115–113, 116–112, and 115–113 all in favour of Ali, who also claimed the WBO light middleweight title. Cotto stated after the fight that he had torn his left bicep in round 7. Cotto started the fight off well, but appeared to slow down midway. Cotto was hurt several times in the fight, and looked on the verge of being stopped a number of occasions, however Ali never looked as though he was going for a knockout. After round 8, two judges had Cotto in front, whilst the third had it even. Although mentioned the bicep injury, Cotto went on to say, "I don't want to make excuses. Sadam won the fight. It is my last fight. I am good, and I want to be happy in my home with my family." Cotto ended his career with a (8-2) record at MSG. Ali thanked Cotto for giving him the opportunity to fight him, "I worked hard for it. I took advantage of this fight, and I made sure to make it count. I want to thank team Cotto, they could have taken an easier fight if they wanted to." Compubox stats showed that Cotto landed 163 of 536 punches thrown (30.4%), whilst Ali landed 139 of his 647 thrown (21.5%). For his final fight, Cotto earned a minimum purse of $1 million. Ali earned a career high $700,000 purse. Cotto was set to have surgery on December 6 to mend a ruptured biceps tendon, which was successful. Cotto's final professional bout averaged 944,000 viewers and peaked at 1.012 million on HBO.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto kept his word and retired after his loss to Sadam Ali. When asked if the fight was his last, Cotto said, "It is. I want to be happy in my home and enjoy my family." Cotto then told the fans, "Thank you for supporting me at every opportunity. "I'm so glad to call Madison Square Garden my home." After a 17-year professional career, Cotto officially retired with a record of 41 wins, with 33 wins inside the distance, and 6 losses.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto is married to Melissa Guzmán with whom he has three children, Luis, Alondra and Miguel Cotto III. Cotto has another daughter from a previous relationship, who was born in November 2006.


title: Miguel Cotto

text: Cotto also owns and presides a boxing promotion named "Promociones Miguel Cotto", which organizes fight cards in Puerto Rico. Similarly he founded "El Ángel", a non-profit organization that promotes physical activity and measures against infant obesity. Marc Eckō, fashion designer and owner of Eckō Unltd., selected Cotto when promoting the brand within the sport, citing the boxer's "fearless" demeanor as one of the main reasons behind this agreement. As a product of this partnership, Eckō Unltd. produced boxing gear for him as well as mainstream clothing accessories for the general public. Miguel Cotto's uncle David Cotto was the first Cotto to be a boxer, he was trained by Bob Foster out of Albuquerque New Mexico and Managed by Jack Luce. In the same stable was Clint Jackson and Tommy Cordova. His career was cut short due to a gunshot wound to his right hand while working as an NYPD officer.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and research emphasis on social sciences and applied sciences.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: Jawaharlal Nehru University was established in 1969 by an act of parliament. It was named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. G. Parthasarathy was the first vice-chancellor. Prof. Moonis Raza was the Founder Chairman and Rector. The bill for the establishment of Jawaharlal Nehru University was placed in the Rajya Sabha on 1 September 1965 by the then-Minister of Education, M. C. Chagla. During the discussion that followed, Bhushan Gupta, member of parliament, voiced the opinion that this should not be yet another university. New faculties should be created, including scientific socialism, and one thing that this university should ensure was to keep noble ideas in mind and provide accessibility to students from weaker sections of society. The JNU Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on 16 November 1966 and the JNU Act came into force on 22 April 1969.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The Indian School of International Studies was merged with the Jawaharlal Nehru University in June 1970. Following the merger, the prefix "Indian" was dropped from the name of the School and it became the School of International Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The president of India is the visitor of the university. The chancellor is the nominal head of the university and the vice-chancellor is the executive head of the university. They are both appointed by the visitor on the recommendations of the Executive Council. The Court, the Executive Council, the Academic Council and the Finance Committee are the administrative authorities of the university.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The University Court is the supreme authority of the university and has the power to review the acts of the Executive Council and the Academic Council. The Executive Council is the highest executive body of the university. The Academic Council is the highest academic body of the university and is responsible for the maintenance of standards of instruction, education and examination within the university. It has the right to advise the Executive Council on all academic matters. The Finance Committee is responsible for recommending financial policies, goals, and budgets.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: In addition, the university has exchange programmes and academic collaboration through the signing of MoUs with 71 universities around the world. The university has also sent a proposal to set up a Center in Bihar. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) trainee officers will be awarded an MA degree in Public Management from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: JNU was ranked 2nd among all universities in India and 10th overall by the National Institutional Ranking Framework, Government of India, in 2022. JNU also received the Best University Award from the President of India in 2017. JNU has been ranked among the top 10 Indian Universities under QS World University rankings. THE WEEK & Hansa Research conducted the best university survey 2021 and ranks JNU 1st Position among the top multidisciplinary universities in India.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students` Union or JNUSU is the university-wide representative body for students at the university. It is an elected body.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: On 24 October 2008 the Supreme Court of India stayed the JNU elections and banned the JNUSU for not complying with the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee. After a prolonged struggle and multi-party negotiations, the ban was lifted on 8 December 2011. After a gap of more than four years, interim elections were scheduled again on 1 March 2012. Following the election results declared on 3 March 2012, All India Students Association (AISA) candidates won all four central panel seats and Sucheta De, the president of AISA became the president of JNUSU.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The International Student's Association (ISA) is an official Jawaharlal Nehru University body. It was instituted in 1985 with a view to promoting friendly relations and cultural exchange. The ISA has a constitution and elected executive, cultural, advisory and financial committees. All foreign students of JNU are also members of the FSA. The university has 133 international students.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The JNU is infused with an intense political life on campus. Students that leave campus are said to acquire a "permanently changed outlook on life" as a result of the student politics. The politicisation of campus life has led to a refusal to brush under the carpet social issues such as feminism, minority rights, social and economic justice. All such issues are debated fiercely in formal and informal gatherings.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The JNU student politics is left-of-centre even though, in recent years, right-wing student groups have also entered the field. Political involvement is "celebratory in spirit." The student union elections are preceded by days of debates and meetings, keeping all students involved. The JNU has the reputation of an "unruly bastion of Marxist revolution." However, the student activists deny the charge, stating that the politics at JNU is issue-based and intellectual.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The university is known for its alumni who now occupy important political and bureaucratic positions (see Notable alumni below). In part, this is because of the prevalence of Centre-left student politics and the existence of a written constitution for the university to which noted Communist Party of India leader Prakash Karat contributed exhaustively during his education at JNU.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: In 2010 a "JNU Forum Against War on People" was organised "to oppose Operation Green Hunt launched by the government." According to the NSUI national general secretary, Shaikh Shahnawaz, the meeting was organised by the Democratic Students' Union (DSU) and All India Students Association (AISA) to "celebrate the killing of 76 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh." Shaikh Shahnawaz also stated that "they were even shouting slogans like 'India murdabad, Maovad zindabad'." NSUI and ABVP activists undertook a march against this meeting, "which was seen as an attempt to support the Naxalites and celebrate the massacre," after which the various parties clashed. The organisers of the forum said that "the event had nothing to do with the killings in Dantewada"


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: In 2015, the JNU Students' Union and the All India Students Association objected to efforts to create instruction on Indian culture. Opposition to such courses was on the basis that such instruction was an attempt to saffronise education. Saffronisation refers to right-wing efforts to glorify ancient Hindu culture. The proposed courses were successfully opposed and were, thus, "rolled back." A former student of JNU and a former student union member, Albeena Shakil, claimed that BJP officials in government were responsible for proposing the controversial courses.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: On 28 December 2014, the symbolic "Rainbow Tree" which stood for LGBTQ pride was vandalised. To counter the "growing homophobia" on the campus, JNU Students' Union along with other queer groups like Anjuman and Dhanak, led a march on 9 January, called Rainbow Walk. The march started from JNU's Ganga Dhaba and ended at the Rainbow Tree spot. The protestors criticised the 2013 verdict of the Supreme Court nullifying the Delhi High Court order reading down Section 377 of the IPC. The campaign aimed at celebrating individual right to sexual freedom and identity. The march was filled with songs and slogans; the students also painted a zebra crossing in rainbow colours and wrapped trees with rainbow coloured threads.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: On 9 February, a cultural evening was organised by 10 students, formerly of the Democratic Students' Union (DSU), at the Sabarmati Dhaba, against the execution of 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and separatist leader Maqbool Bhat, and for Kashmir's right to self-determination. "Anti-India" slogans like ""Pakistan Zindabad"" ("Long live Pakistan"), ""Kashmir ki azadi tak jung chalegi, Bharat ki barbadi tak jung chalegi"" ("War will continue till Kashmir's freedom, war will continue till India's demolition") were reportedly raised at the protest meet." Protests by members of ABVP were held at the University demanding expulsion of the student organisers.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: JNU administration ordered a "disciplinary" enquiry into the holding of the event despite denial of permission, saying any talk about country's disintegration cannot be "national". The Delhi Police arrested the JNU Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy, under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code dating back to 1860.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The arrest soon snowballed into a major political controversy, with several leaders of opposition parties visiting the JNU campus in solidarity with the students protesting against the police crackdown. More than 500 academics from around the world, including JNU alumni, released a statement in support of the students. In a separate statement, over 130 world-leading scholars including Noam Chomsky, Orhan Pamuk and Akeel Bilgrami called it a "shameful act of the Indian government" to invoke sedition laws formulated during colonial times to silence criticism. The crisis was particularly concerning to some scholars studying nationalism. On 25 March 2016, the Google Maps search for 'anti national' led users to JNU campus.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi inaugurated 151-inch tall statue of Swami Vivekananda on 151st Jayanti of Jainacharya Shree Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj and referred as the "Statue of Peace" whereas the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union protested outside the JNU campus and raised slogans such as ‘Uninvited Modi Go Back’, ‘Punish the perpetrators of January 5th attack’, ‘Save Public Education’ and ‘Unlock JNU’ among others.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: In November 2019, the yet-to-be inaugurated statue of Swami Vivekananda in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus was vandalised, with slogans against the BJP painted on the floor around the statue. Students of the university, however, denied their involvement and termed it an act by some miscreants to discredit the JNU Students Union movement against the varsity administration against fee hike and hostel manual. A group of students later wiped off the slogans painted near the statue.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: JNU was shutdown for 46 days by Indian government in 1981 after violence by student unions linked to communist parties.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: In April 2000, two army officers who disturbed an Indo-Pak mushaira at the JNU campus were beaten up by agitated students. The officers were angered by anti-war poems recited by two Pakistani poets and disrupted the . They were enraged at the recited lines of a poem by Urdu poetess, Fahmida Riaz ("It turned out you were just like us") and interpreted the lines as a criticism of India. One of them started to shout anti-Pakistan slogans. When the audience asked for silence. They were overpowered by security and then beaten by students, though not seriously injured. The Indian Army denied the charges and it was reported that the two army officers were admitted in hospitals. A retired judge was appointed to probe the accusation.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: On 13 November 2019, the JNU administration raised the fees of the university. Since 28 October 2019, some students of JNU had been protesting against the fee hike. As a part of this protest, students boycotted the final semester examinations. After protests, the university partially rolled back by reducing fees only for students from families with extreme poverty (BPL category) who do not avail any scholarship. The move did not convince the students as there was no rollback in the fee hike for non-BPL category students neither for BPL students availing a scholarship. To press the administration for a complete rollback of the increase in fees, JNUSU had continued the protests. The semester registration with the revised fee was started by 1 January.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: On 5 Jan 2020, a group of masked vandals entered the campus, destroyed property and beat up several people. This included students and professors. This drew widespread condemnation from the public, with opposition parties, Bollywood celebrities and human rights activists expressing their concerns.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: In April 2022, a group of students from ABVP attacked the canteen staff and students on serving non-vegetarian food. A clash between students in resistance to the efforts of ABVP to ban non-veg and several students were injured. Delhi police registered an FIR against unidentified ABVP students.Netizen commented this as deniel of freedom and a continuation of attack against Muslims in India.


title: Jawaharlal Nehru University

text: The university's alumni include 2019 Nobel Laureate for Economics Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, former Prime Minister of Libya Ali Zeidan and former Prime Minister of Nepal Baburam Bhattarai, as well as several politicians, diplomats, artists, academics, and scientists.


title: John Sebastian

text: John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and scored a U.S. No. 1 hit in 1976 with "Welcome Back."


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 as a member of the Lovin' Spoonful.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian was born in New York City and grew up in Italy and Greenwich Village. His father, John Sebastian ( John Sebastian Pugliese), was a noted classical harmonica player, and his mother, Jane (born Mary Jane Bishir), was a radio script writer. His godmother was Vivian Vance ("Ethel Mertz" of "I Love Lucy"), who was a close friend of his mother. His godfather and first babysitter was children's book illustrator Garth Williams, a friend of his father. Eleanor Roosevelt was a neighbor who lived across the hall.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian grew up surrounded by music and musicians, including Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie, and hearing such players as Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt in his own neighborhood. He graduated from Blair Academy, a private boarding school in Blairstown, New Jersey, in 1962. He next attended New York University for just over a year, but dropped out as he became more interested in musical pursuits.


title: John Sebastian

text: In the early 1960s, Sebastian developed an interest in blues music and in playing harmonica in a blues style, rather than the classical style of his father. Through his father's connections, he met and was influenced by blues musicians Sonny Terry and Lightnin' Hopkins (for whom Sebastian served as "unofficial tour guide and valet" when Hopkins was in New York City). Sebastian became part of the folk and blues scene that was developing in Greenwich Village, which in part later gave rise to folk rock.


title: John Sebastian

text: In addition to harmonica, Sebastian played guitar and occasionally autoharp. One of Sebastian's first recording gigs was playing guitar and harmonica for Billy Faier's 1964 album "The Beast of Billy Faier." He also played on Fred Neil's album "Bleecker & MacDougal" and Tom Rush's self-titled album in 1965. He played in the Even Dozen Jug Band and in The Mugwumps, which split to form the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas. Bob Dylan invited him to play bass on his "Bringing It All Back Home" sessions (though Sebastian's parts probably did not appear on the album) and to join Dylan's new electric touring band, but Sebastian declined in order to concentrate on his own project, the Lovin' Spoonful.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian was joined by Zal Yanovsky, Steve Boone, and Joe Butler in the Spoonful, which was named after "The Coffee Blues," a Mississippi John Hurt song. The Lovin' Spoonful, which blended folk-rock and pop with elements of blues, country, and jug band music, became part of the American response to the British Invasion, and was noted for such hits as "Do You Believe in Magic", "Jug Band Music", "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice", "Daydream", "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?", "Summer in the City", "Rain on the Roof", "Nashville Cats", "Darling Be Home Soon", and "Six O'Clock".


title: John Sebastian

text: The band, however, began to implode after a 1967 marijuana bust in San Francisco involving Yanovsky, a Canadian citizen. Facing deportation, he revealed the name of his dealer to police, which caused a fan backlash and added to the internal tension already created by the band members' diverging interests. Neither Sebastian nor Butler was involved in the matter, both being away from San Francisco at the time. Yanovsky subsequently left the band and was replaced by Jerry Yester, after which the band's musical style veered away from its previous eclectic blend and became more pop-oriented.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian left the Lovin' Spoonful in 1968 and did not play with any later versions of the band, except for a brief reunion with the other three original members to appear in Paul Simon's 1980 film "One-Trick Pony", and again for a single performance at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2000.


title: John Sebastian

text: One of Sebastian's first projects after leaving the Spoonful was composing the music and lyrics for a play with music, "Jimmy Shine", written by Murray Schisgal. It opened on Broadway in December 1968, with Dustin Hoffman in the title role, and ran until April 1969, for a total of over 150 performances. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sebastian himself wrote a stage musical adaptation of E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" in consultation with his godfather Garth Williams, who illustrated White's original book. The proposed musical included 20 songs, some of which Sebastian performed in concert, but the musical was never produced.


title: John Sebastian

text: In August 1969, Sebastian made an unscheduled appearance at Woodstock. He traveled to the festival as a spectator, but was asked to appear when the organizers suddenly needed an acoustic performer after a rain break because they couldn't set up amps on stage for Santana until the water was swept off. Sources that have tried to reconstruct the Woodstock running order differ on the exact time and position of Sebastian's unplanned set, with some stating that he played on Saturday, August 16, immediately after Country Joe McDonald; others saying that on that Saturday, Santana followed McDonald and Sebastian appeared after Santana; and still others, including McDonald, recalling that Sebastian actually played on Friday, August 15, at some point after Richie Havens opened the festival.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian's Woodstock set consisted of three songs from his recorded but not yet released "John B. Sebastian" album ("How Have You Been", "I Had a Dream", and "Rainbows All Over Your Blues") and two Lovin' Spoonful songs ("Darling Be Home Soon" and "Younger Generation", which he dedicated to a newborn baby at the festival). Documentary remarks by festival organizers indicated that Sebastian was under the influence of marijuana or other psychedelic drugs at the time, hence his spontaneity and casual, unplanned set. Sebastian has confirmed in later interviews that he was a regular marijuana user at the time and had taken acid at Woodstock because he was not scheduled to perform. However, he has also noted that "there was a natural high there [at Woodstock]," and that "[i]n an interview it is the easy thing to say 'yeah, I was really high,' but it was actually a very small part of the event. In fact, I had a small part of some pill that someone gave me before I went on stage, but it wasn't a real acid feeling." Sebastian appeared on the original and in the documentary film. Twenty-five years later, he returned for Woodstock '94, playing harmonica for Crosby, Stills and Nash and appearing with his own band, the J-Band.


title: John Sebastian

text: In September 1969, a month after Woodstock, Sebastian performed a similar set of solo and Spoonful material at the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival and was featured in the subsequent documentary "Celebration at Big Sur" (1971).


title: John Sebastian

text: In January 1970, Sebastian released the first in a series of solo LPs on Reprise Records (a label owned by Warner Bros. Records), his eponymous solo debut, "John B. Sebastian", on which he was accompanied by various Los Angeles musicians including Crosby, Stills & Nash. It was Sebastian's highest-charting solo album, reaching No. 20 in the Billboard album charts. In a contract dispute with MGM Records, MGM, without authorization from Sebastian or his management, also released the "John B. Sebastian" album, under a different cover, and a live album, "John Sebastian Live"; both were later withdrawn from the market. Sebastian's second Reprise album, "Cheapo Cheapo Productions Presents Real Live John Sebastian", was hastily recorded in an effort to provide an authorized live album.


title: John Sebastian

text: For his third Reprise album, "The Four of Us" (1971), Sebastian used a core backing band consisting of keyboardist Paul Harris, drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Kenny Altman. He considered forming a permanent band with them, but Harris and Taylor chose to join Stephen Stills's band Manassas. In 1972, Sebastian also released a non-LP single, "Give Us a Break" b/w "Music for People Who Don't Speak English", which did not chart. On his next album, "Tarzana Kid" (1974), Sebastian returned to using a rotating group of well-known recording artists and session musicians, including Lowell George (who also co-wrote, with Sebastian, the album track "Face of Appalachia"), Phil Everly, Emmylou Harris, the Pointer Sisters, David Grisman, Russell DaShiell, Ry Cooder and Buddy Emmons. Sebastian, George and Everly also briefly considered forming a supergroup but abandoned the idea.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian has stated that his musical career suffered in the early 1970s from being out of step with the trends set by emerging artists such as Alice Cooper, and that he made more money by buying and selling real estate than he did from his music. After "Tarzana Kid" failed to chart, Sebastian sought a release from his Reprise contract, which required him to make one more album. However, in 1976, Sebastian had an unexpected No. 1 single with "Welcome Back", the theme song to the sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter", causing the label to rush the production of an album, also titled "Welcome Back". Despite the "monster hit" status of the song "Welcome Back", Sebastian expressed frustration that Reprise did not do more to promote the associated album, his last for Reprise. His later albums have been released primarily on independent record labels. The song, Sebastian's only top-40 solo hit, found new life 28 years later when a sample from it became the hook for rapper Mase's 2004 hit "Welcome Back".


title: John Sebastian

text: In 2001, Rhino Entertainment re-released all five of Sebastian's Reprise albums, plus the non-LP "Give Us a Break" single, on CD in a limited-edition box set entitled "Faithful Virtue: The Reprise Recordings". The box set also included live recordings of Sebastian's entire Woodstock performance and six previously unreleased songs recorded in mono from a performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on October 4, 1969. In 2006, Sebastian's five Reprise albums were reissued as individual CDs by Collectors' Choice Music, with new liner notes by Richie Unterberger.


title: John Sebastian

text: During the 1960s and 1970s, Sebastian guested on a number of recordings by other artists. He played harmonica with the Doors on the song "Roadhouse Blues" (from the album "Morrison Hotel"), under the pseudonym G. Pugliese to avoid problems with his contract and to avoid association with Jim Morrison, who was then facing trial on charges of lewd behavior after the Miami concert incident. He also appeared on two Doors live albums, playing on "Little Red Rooster" on "Alive, She Cried" and on seven songs on "Live in Detroit". Both albums were later re-released, remastered, and repackaged into one single album, "In Concert", and included Morrison's introduction of Sebastian to the stage on the "Little Red Rooster" track.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian is credited with playing three instruments on the 1970 Gordon Lightfoot album, "Sit Down Young Stranger" (Reprise RS 6392). He played autoharp on "Saturday Clothes", electric guitar on "Baby It's Allright", and harmonica on "The Pony Man". The album was later retitled "If You Could Read My Mind" when the song of that name unexpectedly became a major hit.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian is credited with playing harmonica on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's song "Déjà Vu" from the album of the same name. He had previously been asked by Crosby, Stills & Nash to join their group as a fourth member, but turned them down, leading to their association with Neil Young. In 1977 he recorded as part of Artie and Happy Traum's Woodstock Mountain Revue (a.k.a. Woodstock Mountains) folk collaboration for the album "More Music From Mud Acres". Other records on which Sebastian appeared include the album "Stephen Stills" (1970), Timothy Leary's album "You Can Be Anyone This Time Around" (1970) (on which Sebastian jammed with Jimi Hendrix), and Keith Moon's only solo album, "Two Sides of the Moon" (1975). He also played the autoharp instrumental break between the second and third verses of Randy VanWarmer's 1979 hit "Just When I Needed You Most".


title: John Sebastian

text: Since the 1980s, Sebastian has been active in several music-related areas, not only writing and performing his own material but also performing roots music, developing soundtrack and instructional material, hosting and appearing on television programs, and writing a children's book about a harmonica-playing bear.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian has continued to tour and play live, both solo and with a variety of backing bands. He had a long association with the eclectic rock band NRBQ, dating back to the early 1980s, when he played on NRBQ's album "Grooves in Orbit" (1983). He has said that NRBQ "to a large extent, picked up where The Lovin' Spoonful left off" because of NRBQ's "wide range of musical styles that they're not only able but accurate at playing," and he expressed appreciation for NRBQ's support during a low point in his career. In turn, Sebastian helped NRBQ by using them on his own Nelvana and Disney Channel soundtrack projects during a period when litigation prevented them from recording. Sebastian has used NRBQ as his own backing band, appeared regularly at their concerts, and recorded frequently with the band members, and NRBQ founding member Terry Adams refers to Sebastian as an "honorary member" of the band. Although he performed Lovin' Spoonful songs solo and with NRBQ (who were themselves promoted in the 1980s as "the new Lovin' Spoonful"), he declined to reunite with several former Spoonful members in 1991.


title: John Sebastian

text: Throughout the 1990s, Sebastian frequently appeared with the J-Band, a jug band including Fritz Richmond from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, jug band pioneer Yank Rachell, Jimmy Vivino, and Geoff Muldaur. Sebastian and the J-Band were featured in "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" (2007), a documentary about the roots and influence of jug band music. The film screened in August 2007 at the San Francisco Jug Band Festival (where Sebastian performed with other musicians featured in the film, including Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Jim Kweskin and David Grisman) and made its film festival debut in October 2007 at the Woodstock Film Festival. In the film Sebastian humorously explains (with musical accompaniment) how his song, "Younger Girl", was inspired by Gus Cannon's "Prison Wall Blues."


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian's live performances in the 2000s have included performing as a trio with country blues duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines in 2002; touring with Maria Muldaur and her Garden of Joy jug band in 2009; and occasional appearances with mandolinist David Grisman, with whom Sebastian played in the Even Dozen Jug Band in the 1960s and more recently collaborated on a CD album release, "Satisfied".


title: John Sebastian

text: After leaving Reprise, Sebastian continued to occasionally release CD albums through a variety of small labels. Although a number of these releases consisted of compilations or live performances of his older material from the 1960s and 1970s, some, such as "Tar Beach" (Shanachie, 1993) and "Satisfied" (with David Grisman) (Acoustic Disc, 2007) have contained significant new recordings. "Tar Beach" in particular contained eleven previously unreleased songs written or co-written by Sebastian; four songs were composed by the team of Sebastian and songwriter Phil Galdston, with whom Sebastian also collaborated on the score for the Sig Shore-directed feature film "The Act" (1984). According to Colin Larkin, Sebastian had written many of the songs that appeared on "Tar Beach" more than a decade prior to the album's release. Two later releases, "I Want My Roots" (Music Masters, 1996) and "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" (Hollywood, 2000), focused on Sebastian's work with the J-Band.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian is a frequent contributor to film and TV soundtracks. In particular, he has written and performed music for a number of children's films and TV productions. He wrote the music and provided the singing voice of "Daniel Mouse" for the Canada-based Nelvana animated television special "The Devil and Daniel Mouse" (1978) about two mice attempting to succeed in the music business. He supplied music for several more Nelvana productions, including "" (1983), "Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins" (1985), "The Care Bears Movie" (1985), "The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland" (1987), and "Care Bear Countdown", the theme song for Nelvana's "The Care Bears Family" TV series. He also wrote and sang the theme song/narration for Nelvana's TV pilot "The Get Along Gang"; however, none of it was kept when DIC Entertainment took over the project. He wrote and performed the theme song of the KNBC syndicated children's program "That's Cat" (1976–1979), and hosted a 1986 Disney Channel family special entitled "What a Day for a Daydream".


title: John Sebastian

text: Since the 1980s, Sebastian has hosted several television programs about 1960s and 1970s music, including paid programs for compilation sets, a syndicated live music and interview program called "Deja View", and a half-hour program called "The Golden Age of Rock and Roll," which featured video footage of 1960s bands performing on variety shows. He also hosted a Lovin' Spoonful retrospective broadcast on PBS in March 2007, talking about various Spoonful numbers in between vintage video clips of the band up to the time he left.


title: John Sebastian

text: In 1993, Sebastian authored a children's book, "JB's Harmonica", illustrated by his godfather Garth Williams, about a young bear whose musical aspirations are overshadowed by the talents of his famous musician father.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian has released a series of instructional DVDs, CDs, downloads, booklets, and (prior to the use of digital media) analog tapes for learning to play guitar, harmonica, and autoharp, or for learning specific styles or songs. These instructional materials are distributed by Homespun Tapes, a company founded and operated by folk musician Happy Traum. Materials offered with Sebastian as an instructor have included "An Easy Guide to Tuning Your Guitar", "John Sebastian Teaches Eight Lovin' Spoonful Hits (and "Welcome Back")", "John Sebastian Teaches Blues Harmonica", "Learn to Play Autoharp", and "The Fingerpicking Blues of Mississippi John Hurt: A Spoonful of Classic Songs".


title: John Sebastian

text: In November 1992, Sebastian made a cameo appearance on the sitcom "Married... with Children" (Season 7, Episode 9, "Rock of Ages") as himself, along with other 1960s rock stars Spencer Davis, Richie Havens, Robby Krieger, Mark Lindsay, and Peter Noone.


title: John Sebastian

text: On January 12, 2014, Sebastian appeared on "CBS News Sunday Morning" to talk about his career with and without the Lovin' Spoonful, Eric Clapton, and the Martin guitar.


title: John Sebastian

text: In 2016, Sebastian appeared on Richard Barone's "Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s" album, playing harmonica, autoharp and making a vocal cameo on Barone's cover of the Lovin' Spoonful song "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?".


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian is a notable songwriter whose work has been covered by many artists, including Elvis Costello ("The Room Nobody Lives In"), Johnny Cash ("Darlin' Companion"), and Del McCoury ("Nashville Cats"). Several songs have also spawned multiple covers, including:


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian is also credited with helping to popularize the art of tie-dyeing clothing among music fans and festival goers in the late 1960s, by publicly appearing in outfits that he tie-dyed himself after learning the process from Ann Thomas of Water Baby Dye Works. His tie-dyed yellow patterned denim jacket, which he dyed himself and wore at Woodstock, has been prominently displayed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


title: John Sebastian

text: "Stories We Could Tell", the title of a novel by British writer Tony Parsons, comes from the Sebastian song of the same name.


title: John Sebastian

text: As an original member of the Lovin' Spoonful, Sebastian was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.


title: John Sebastian

text: Sebastian has been married three times. His first wife was Jean "Butchie" Webber (later known as Butchie Denver after she married actor Bob Denver). According to Steve Boone, Butchie was an early supporter and friend of the Lovin' Spoonful's who secretly married Sebastian in the early 1960s to reduce his chances of being drafted for service in the Vietnam War. The couple divorced in 1966. That same year, Sebastian married Loretta "Lorey" Kaye, a waitress at Steve Paul's The Scene who later worked for "Hit Parader" magazine; they divorced in 1968.


title: John Sebastian

text: In 1972, Sebastian married Catherine Barnett, a photographer and artist who has designed numerous album covers. The couple have two children together.


title: John Sebastian

text: Since the early 1990s, Sebastian has struggled with throat problems that eventually affected and changed his singing voice, but he has continued to perform and tour.