By Jason Kim: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto is probably around 85% of what he was before his beatings against Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao in 2008 and 2009.

He’s clearly lost something from those fights and isn’t as fierce as he once was or as quick. However, Cotto was just so good back then that even at 85%, he’s going to be a lot of trouble for challenger Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather said he wanted Cotto because he respects his ability and wanted a fighter with a big name, not to mention the ability to draw a lot of boxing fans on pay per view. That obviously doesn’t hurt as well. But this is a fight that could turn around and backfire on Mayweather with him taking a beating from the still powerful Cotto, because does he’s step above the guys that Mayweather has been facing in the past five years.

You look at the guys that Mayweather has fought during that time frame and none of them had as much talent that Cotto has now going for them. Mayweather beat Oscar de La Hoya in 2007, but Oscar wasn’t the same fighter at that stage of his career and couldn’t find the energy to beat him in the second half of the fight.

Cotto is going to be taking the fight to Mayweather and hitting him with a lot of shots. It’s not important for Cotto to land everything. He’s going to miss a lot of punches and half a lot picked off on the gloves of Mayweather.

However, the ones that do get through Mayweather’s defenses will cause a lot of pain will likely mark or bust Mayweather up. He just hasn’t had anyone like Cotto in the ring for too many years and he’s going to find out the hard way what it’s like to suddenly take a huge step up in class at an advanced age.

It’s going to be rough on Mayweather. He might still win but this is going to be a very tough fight for him where he’s going to get beaten up a little.