Floyd Mayweather will soften the blow of heading to prison by fighting in what will probably be the highest grossing fight of the year (unless he and Pacquiao get together in November), taking on Miguel Cotto on May 5 in Las Vegas, with the chances of Miguel Cotto being the first fighter to beat Mayweather looking rather slim at the moment.
Why? Because Miguel Cotto has never fully recuperated from the beatings he took from Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito. The loss to Margarito was probably illegal knowing what we know now, but the damage he took in that fight was real enough. Because despite his three wins since – Over Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga and a bloody pay back against Margarito, he doesn’t look like the fighter he once was.
At 154 lbs, fighting for the WBA (super) Light Middleweight belt, Cotto should present more problems for Mayweather than anyone else at Welterweight, besides Pacquiao. Mayweahter hasn’t fought at this weight since his 2007 fight with Oscar De La Hoya, the highest grossing PPV fight in history (2.7 million buys). He looked pretty good then, winning a split decision which should have been a unanimous one, but that was 5 years ago.
Another difference is De La Hoya being 34 at the time, while Cotto is 31. The overall feeling was De La Hoya was only fighting for money. With Cotto? It feels different, and if history repeats itself, Mayweather will have trouble during the early rounds with the added weight. If Cotto can take advantage of that and unlike De La Hoya actually hurt Mayweather early on, that might put him on top for the rest of the fight. In terms of boxing skills and Mayweather’s ability to defend and make boxers miss before punishing them, there’s no doubt who has the edge.
Meanwhile, at the Manny Pacquiao promotional tour, it seems they’re more focused on talking about Mayweather than Bradley, who doesn’t pose much of a verbal target due to his public profile and less, lets say, controversial nature. Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, doesn’t think Cotto has much of a shot against Mayweather, who picked himself a comfortable opponent, again.
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The speed and the boxing ability will be a big difference. I think Cotto’s been declining ever since Magarito beat him up so badly. He’s really a bit on the downside at this point. I think Mayweather may even stop Miguel now.
I think Mayweather can out-box him. I don’t think Mayweather can knock him out. I hope Cotto does well. I hope he gets one in and knocks him out and just shuts this guy up. Somebody’s got to shut this guy up. I mean, the guy’s like an expert on everything, from basketball to … but I think Cotto is still on the downside a little bit. I don’t think he’s what he was back in the day. I think Mayweather will out-box him, but I don’t see it as being a really exciting fight, though. Mayweather is never in a really exciting fight anyway.
Manny Pacquiao sees things a little differently. He fought Miguel Cotto and won the fight with a late TKO, and actually warns Mayweather from taking Cotto too lightly – That’s a good fight, Floyd and Cotto. He thinks that Cotto is an easy opponent, but he’s not. Cotto is a good boxer, he’s strong. He needs to train hard, because Cotto is strong, very strong.