By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Even if Canelo Alvarez eventually decides he wants to fight Miguel Cotto again, Cotto has promised to remain retired.

Regardless, it’ll probably bother Cotto’s trainer, Freddie Roach, more than Cotto that he wasn’t able to beat Alvarez in their middleweight championship showdown two years ago in Las Vegas. The outspoken Roach still feels his fighter did enough to beat Alvarez in that 12-round pay-per-view fight.

Roach suspects that after spending 12 rounds in the ring with Puerto Rico’s Cotto that the Mexican superstar figured it was just as well that they didn’t fight again. The 27-year-old Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) has knocked out Amir Khan and Liam Smith, dominated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a 12-rounder and battled to a 12-round draw with Gennady Golovkin in his four fights since conquering Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs).

“I don’t think Canelo ever wants that rematch, to be honest with you,” Roach told several reporters following a press conference Thursday at Madison Square Garden, where Cotto will battle Sadam Ali on Saturday night. “He never responded to any of our offers.”

Alvarez defeated Cotto by big margins on each of the three scorecards at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Dave Moretti scored their fight 119-109 for Alvarez, wider than Burt Clements (118-110) and John McKaie (117-111). That means Moretti scored only one round for Cotto, while Clements credited the then-champion with winning two rounds and McKaie had Cotto winning three rounds.

Roach questions what the three judges were watching that night.

“I thought we won the fight,” Roach said. “There’s no doubt. His defense was great that night. He picked off every shot. If you go percentage-wise, they say we didn’t land enough power shots. But what is a power shot? Anything that’s not a jab is a power shot. So that’s kind of bullsh*t, too, because he landed a lot more than just a jab that night.”

According to unofficial CompuBox statistics, Alvarez out-landed Cotto in overall punches (155-of-184 to 129-of-629) and power punches (118-of-298 to 75-of-255). CompuBox credited Cotto with connecting on more jabs (54-of-374 to 37-of-186).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.