By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fighting an uphill battle trying to market his May 5th fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto almost single-handed. Cotto doesn’t have the personality to sell the fight and he’s going to make for bad television in the HBO Mayweather-Cotto 24/7 series which will be shown in four parts by CNN and HBO.

Mayweather is the one that will have to carry the 24/7 series with his persona, because Cotto is too quiet to get much interest going. There’s not going to be the same back and forth banter that there was for the Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz 24/7 series last year. Ortiz was talking trash back and forth with Mayweather and he at least made it sort of interesting, although the whole focus on Ortiz’s upbringing was really overplayed to the point where it was forlorn. Thankfully, well probably not be seeing that kind of tear-jerking angle from Cotto.

But I hope he least shows some anger or some combative instincts during the 24/7 series to get some people interested. We already know Cotto has no chance of winning, but you got to at least make it seem like he’s got a chance otherwise it’s boring. Cotto is almost like a sacrificial lamb being led to the slaughter by Mayweather. I know Mayweather has been easily whipping his opponents and it’s almost like the bum of the month club each time he’s matched up against someone but Cotto is a decent fighter, so he shouldn’t be just another easy win for Mayweather. Cotto is going to lose, but I hope he brings some theatrics to the 24/7 series so that he can get a few fans interested in the fight before he goes out and is taken out by Maywather.

Cotto needs to work some kind of angle to try and get to Mayweather. He’s obviously not good at trash talking and probably never will. But that doesn’t keep Cotto from talking about things that he’s observed about Mayweather – whether that be his fighting style or his personality. This is reality television and Cotto has got to come up with a personality to bring some interest. He’ll be the good guy like always, while Mayweather will probably play up the villain angle unless he feels too much respect for Cotto and treats him with kid gloves. I hope not because I want to see Mayweather rip into Cotto and tell him what time it is. He needs to make it interesting.