Cotto doesn’t have much of a chance against Mayweather

By Boxing News - 03/12/2012 - Comments

Image: Cotto doesn't have much of a chance against MayweatherBy Dan Ambrose: We saw what happened to Juan Manuel Lopez last weekend with him predictably getting whipped by WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido in Puerto Rico. Pretty much the entire world saw Lopez losing the fight going into it and that’s what happened. Now it’s WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s turn to get beaten up and stopped when he faces his best opponent of his career Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 5th.

Cotto doesn’t have any stamina, technique and this figures to be a huge mismatch, because Mayweather has all of those attributes and then some. You could say Cotto has a puncher’s chance, but that’s it. Anytime you got a fighter that is living and dying by his ability to KO an opponent, then it’s not a good situation. What compounds Cotto’s problems is the fact that he’s been spoon-fed for the past two years by his promoter instead of keeping him active and sharp against the best fighters in the division. Cotto has had the easy path against injured or old guys and it’s kept him winning, but at the expense of keeping him sharp by having him fight the best.

It’s too late for Cotto to try and learn some technique so he’s going to have to try and score a knockout and hope for the best. I feel kind of sorry for him though because I see him taking a beating and getting sliced to ribbons by Mayweather. Cotto’s game is centered too much on needing to get in close to throw his body and head shots. That’s going to put him in range of Mayweather’s counter shots. When Cotto dips to try and throw his body punches, Mayweather will take advantage of that by hitting him with straight right hands and short check left hooks before Cotto is able to wind up completely to throw his shots. We could end up seeing Cotto get knocked out very early in this fight if he tries to attack Mayweather’s body or head with power shots.



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