By Jason Kim: After watching former WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto get methodically taken apart by the Mexican Tornado Antonio Margarito recently, I wondered whether Cotto would stand a chance against an even bigger fighter like the 6′2″ WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams. If the question was asked before Cotto’s recent fight with Margarito, I’m fairly certain that most people would be in agreement that Cotto would come out the winner in the fight due his excellent counter punching ability and pinpoint punching.

However, Margarito showed Cotto for all his vulnerabilities, making it clear that he doesn’t like to be pressured for a long period of time and that he often fades badly in the in the 10th to the 12th rounds of his fights. Cotto has the much better power than Williams, and that’s something that won’t likely change even after Cotto’s loss. He punches well to the body and head, and isn’t easy to hit with single shots. Indeed, Cotto’s defense has improved immensely in the past couple of years to the point where he looks almost as good as Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his ability to duck and get out of the way of punches.

However, in his fight with Margarito, there was simply far too many shots being thrown at him at one time which prevented him from blocking or ducking all of the punches. Margarito wouldn’t just throw one hook, he’d wind up with it again and again and again, using it like a hammer to pound Cotto. The punches weren’t all that big, but given the constant rate of them coming in, it had the effect of breaking down the face of Cotto, which is already vulnerable because of all the scar tissue around both of his eyes. Williams is a lot like Margarito in that way of fighting, throwing a lot of punches but not always with power.

Just like his fight with Margarito, the 5′7″ Cotto would be giving up a lot of height and reach to Williams. This in effect would make Cotto have to take many more risks that he is accustomed to, for he couldn’t count on standing on the outside and landing his darting jab, nor could he try and bum rush Williams and try to hurt him with shots. Williams throws a lot of punches, period. In fact, he never seems to stop punching and even makes Margarito look pale in comparison.

This would be a serious problem for Cotto, who with his average work rate of 40-50 punches per round, he’d find himself buried under the avalanche of shots. After his loss to Margarito, I don’t think that Cotto would elect to the suicidal game plan of trying to run the entire fight, because that only succeeded in tiring him out in the later portions of the fight.

He also probably wouldn’t try to go right at Williams, because he’d probably walk into one of his right hooks and get knocked down. As it is, he’d be in serious trouble with almost any game plan he used. The only thing Cotto could hope to do is to try and clinch Williams, and hope to get enough shots in between clinches to win a close decision. It wouldn’t be pretty, though, and it would probably bore the crowd, but I think Cotto would have an excellent chance at beating Williams - or even Margarito - using a style like this.

I’m betting this is going to be the way that Cotto fights from now on, because he’s just too small to compete against the bigger welterweights in the division fighting the way he has in the past. It may work against smaller fighters, or older ones, but against younger fighters with size, Cotto is at a tremendous disadvantage and will take a lot more punishment in the future if he takes on another big fighter.

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