Australia’s Daniel Geale has suffered a brutal knockout loss to WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in New York.

Geale was taller, had a longer reach and weighed substantially more than the stocky Cotto when they met in the ring in Brooklyn on Saturday.

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Size did not matter for Cotto, the first Puerto Rican boxer to win world-titles in four different weight classes, knocking Geale down twice in the fourth round.

Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach said before the bout they would attack Geale’s body and that is what happened, with Cotto connecting with 32 body shots in the four rounds.

“I caught him with a really hard left hook,” Cotto, describing the power shot to Geale’s nose and mouth that left the Australian flat on his back the first time, said.

Cotto backed Geale up, moved forward and struck Geale with his head and as the Australian threw a punch the champion fired the trademark left hook to the face.

The knockdown came with 2:28 left in the fourth round, Geale slowly got up and let referee Harvey Dock count to eight before agreeing to continue the fight.

Geale, who was weakened substantially by trying to make it below the middleweight catch weight of 71.2kg, valiantly attempted to fight on but exactly one minute later after a flurry of punches he fell to the canvas.

When Dock got to eight in the count this time Geale indicated he had had enough.

It was Geale’s third straight loss in the US and the lopsided contest mirrored last July’s third round knockout defeat at the hands of another middleweight great, Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin.

Geale has lost three of his last five fights.

Cotto has his eye on a pay-per-view super fight later this year with one of boxing’s rising star’s, Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez.

Golovkin, who was at the fight, is also pursuing a fight with Cotto.

“I’ve had 44 fights in my entire career,” Cotto said.

“Canelo is just going to be another one.”

Cotto replied “Why not?” when asked about fighting Golovkin.

After Friday’s weigh-in Geale, who stands 178cm tall and has a reach of 180cm, stacked on weight and in street clothes weighed 82.5kg just before the bout.

Cotto, at 170cm and with a reach of 170cm, was just 69.67kg at the weigh-in.

The 34-year-old Cotto’s record stands at 40 wins (33 knockouts) and four losses while Geale, also aged 34, drops to 31 wins (16 KO) and four losses.