By Dan Ambrose: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto needed a better a tune-up before taking on challenger Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 5th in Las Vegas, Nevada, because his former promoter Bob Arum has taken Cotto out of the regular circulation since his loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2009.

That was the last real world class opponent that Cotto has faced, because Arum had had Cotto matched softly in his last three fights against Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga and Antonio Margarito. Those guys were all decent fighters during their day, but when Cotto got to them they weren’t the same for some reason or another. Cotto was able to stop two of those fighters and force a stoppage on the third Margarito due to eye swelling.

Mayweather is a lot better than those guys put together and he’s not limited with some kind of injury to his eyes or leg. Mayweather is 100% ready to take on Cotto and hand him another loss in the process of taking his title. Mayweather doesn’t have any intention of holding onto that belt, but rather just wants to capture it so he can win another title a different weight class – but without a catchweight.

Cotto can’t stand and trade with Mayweather because he’ll get eaten alive from Floyd’s counter-punching. He’s too good at making slow guys like Cotto pay for their habit of winding up and trying to put everything on their shots. That doesn’t work against Mayweather and it leads instead to those fighters getting hit with pinpoint shots. Cotto needs to try and box because if he rushes Mayweather, he’ll get hit with too many shots he doesn’t see coming.

Cotto’s biggest problem int his, besides the speed, is his tender skin around his eyes. He cuts too easy and will be getting hit a lot in this fight that will make his scar tissue that much more likely to rip up under the stress from Maayweather’s pinpoint shots. Cotto needs to stay on the outside and try to use his jab the way that Oscar De La Hoya was able to do against Mayweather when he fought him. De La Hoya was okay as long as he was jabbing Mayweather. Where De La Hoya made the mistake is by trying to punch it out with him and this gave Mayweather all kinds of counter punching opportunities in the fight to win a 12 round decision.