By Dan Ambrose: We’ve seen WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto use the skills he was taught recently by Cuban trainer Pedro Diaz in Cotto’s fight with Antonio Margarito last December, and Cotto didn’t look half bad in showing looks that he’d showed before in any of his fights.

Cotto’s defense was 100% better, as was his footwork. He did a good job of out-boxing Margarito for pretty much the entire fight. Next month, Cotto will get to show whether his new skills will help him beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 5th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. It’s one thing showing things against faded fighter like Margarito, who looked incredibly slow and who’s surgically repaired right eye closed almost almost immediately in the fight.

Mayweather doesn’t have a bad eye, bad knee or bad anything, and he’s not 100 years old. He’s still fighting at an incredibly high level despite being older than Cotto. Mayweather’s legs don’t move like they used to, but he’s made up for it by being able to use his still fast hand speed to compensate for what he’s lost in foot speed.

Cotto will probably try and use a lot of circular movement against Mayweather, and will try control the action with his jab the same way that Oscar De La Hoya was able to keep Mayweather under control with his jab in 2007. The jab will slow Mayweather down somewhat, especially if Cotto throws it a lot. But even if he does, Mayweather is going to get past that jab again and again to score hurtful pinpoint shots to Cotto’s head.

I think that’s going to be the main area of focus for Mayweather, as he tries to get Cotto’s skin bleeding and puffing up. He can’t let Cotto land his shots, and that’s why Mayweather needs to avoid throwing body shots.