CAGUAS, Puerto Rico -- The sun is still fighting to rise over the lush green hills of Puerto Rico's fertile midsection as five men meet in a park near the city center for their regular morning workout.
Less than a block into the run, when an SUV pulls up behind the group and honks, the man at the front of the pack responds by pulling down the back of his sweat pants and mooning the driver.
Miguel Cotto, arguably the island's hottest athlete, breaks into a smile before he's even broken a sweat. Turns out he's just flashed his own mother.
Yet that's a side of Cotto few outside a tight circle of friends ever get to see. Most of the world knows the undefeated, two-time world champion for his scowl and his punishing punches in the boxing ring. Cotto will defend his World Boxing Assn. welterweight title Saturday in Las Vegas against Antonio Margarito.
Outside the ring, however, Cotto is a tireless practical joker who isn't afraid to let down his guard -- and his sweat pants -- once in a while. "When he's boxing, people say he's serious and he's focused and he doesn't smile," says his trainer Phil Landman. "But he's completely the opposite when he's out of the ring. Always joking, laughing, having a good time."
"He was always a bit cheeky, like all kids," Jose "Joey" Gomez, one of Cotto's cornermen and a friend since early childhood, says in Spanish. "He jokes in a way that leaves you stunned. He's going to try to make you happy. [But] he's not the type of person who makes friends easily and trusts everyone."
The public Miguel Cotto, the one with the rock-star following in his native Puerto Rico, will greet a raucous crowd of 1,500 packed into a shopping mall with little more than a shy wave. But the private Miguel Cotto has proven so loyal that when he shaved his head at the start of training camp for Saturday's fight, every one of his friends -- as well as his son -- insisted on having their heads shaved as well.
"He's totally different with us," Gomez says. "He's the type of person that if you were with him from the beginning, he's not going to leave you behind. He's going to take you by the hand and take you with him."
Perhaps one reason Cotto seems so uncomfortable in the limelight is the fact he never set out to be there in the first place. When he first stepped into the gym as a pudgy 156-pound 10-year-old he was hoping boxing might save his life, not take it over.
