Three-division titlewinner Miguel Cotto and his son, Miguel III, attended Sunday night’s 121-100 New York Knicks victory over the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden, where Miguel Cotto Jr. will challenge WBA junior middleweight beltholder Austin Trout in a Showtime-televised clash on Saturday night.

Prior to the contest, Cotto and his son met the Knicks’ forward Carmelo Anthony, who finished with a game-high 29 points, three assists, made four of the five shots he attempted from three-point range, and was five-for-five from the free throw line.

The 32-year-old Cotto (37-3, 30 knockouts) is hoping for similar success against the 27-year-old Trout (25-0, 14 KOs) at The Garden, where Cotto is 7-0 with four knockouts.

Cotto is immensely popular in New York, where he is 9-0 overall with five stoppage victories, the last in the Big Apple being a 10th-round knockout of Antonio Margarito at The Garden in December of last year that which avenged the first loss of Cotto’s career, an 11th-round knockout in July of 2008.

MIGUEL COTTO’S FIGHTS IN NEW YORK:

Waklimi Young, UD 4, Hammerstein Ballroom, April 28, 2001

Muhammad Abdulaev, TKO 9, Madison Square Garden, June 11, 2005

Paulie Malignaggi, UD 12, Madison Square Garden, June 10, 2006

Zab Judah, TKO 11, Madison Square Garden, June 9, 2007

Shane Mosley, UD 12, Madison Square Garden, Nov. 10, 2007

Michael Jennings, TKO 5, Madison Square Garden, February 21, 2009

Joshua Clottey, SD 12, Madison Square Garden, June 13, 2009

Yuri Foreman, TKO 9, Yankee Stadium, June 5, 2010

Antonio Margarito, TKO 10, Madison Square Garden, Dec. 3, 2011

Photo by Dave Saffran, MSG Photos

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]