Khan picks Mayweather to beat Cotto

By Boxing News - 04/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Khan picks Mayweather to beat CottoBy Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan hopes to move up to 147 in the near future to try and wrangle a fight against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. That’s been Khan’s goal now for well over a year. However, before that fight can take place, Mayweather must keep winning, and his next fight is against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto on May 5th. Khan is picking Mayweather to win that one.

Khan said on his twitter “I reckon Mayweather wins against Cotto, but will be a a skillful match. Mayweather’s speed will be an upside, but I like how tight and composed Cotto is.”

Is Khan talking about Cotto’s defense and calm composure from his last three fights or watching him on Mayweather-Cotto 24/7 on HBO? It goes without saying that Cotto has looked good in his last three fights because his former promoter Bob Arum set him up with three easy fights.

Arum put him in with Yuri Foreman, Ricardo Mayorga and Antonio Margarito. All three of those fighters had physical issues or age holding them back. Mayorga was 38 and past his prime; Foreman had no power and came into the fight with a bum right knee that should have had surgery on it ages ago, and Margarito took the fight coming off a year layoff and three surgeries.

How do you not look good when those are the fighters that Cotto has been fighting. Arum hasn’t tested the guy since he put him in with Manny Pacquiao in 2009. Cotto was beaten by Pacquiao, and it looks like Arum wanted to make sure no one else beat him anytime soon. He didn’t even have to match Cotto up against anyone good for him to make good cash, hence why push him against someone that would beat him like Vanes Martirosyan, James Kirkland or Erislandy Lara.

Mayweather obviously will beat Cotto, but it shouldn’t be a real surprise. It will be just a continuation for Cotto from his loss in 2009 and it would have likely happened if Cotto was matched hard after his Pacquiao defeat.

Cotto says his trainer Pedro Diaz has come up with the perfect game plan to defeat Mayweather. I would feel a lot better about Cotto’s chances of winning if he said Diaz came up with the perfect ‘game plans’ because Cotto is going to need more than one plan in order to beat Floyd. Whatever Diaz dreams up, Mayweather will figure out a way around it, and that’ll open up more problems for Cotto.

I really don’t see Diaz as being able to come up with a plan that will make Cotto a better fighter. He is what he is. You can come up with the most perfect plan, but if you don’t have the physical tools to accomplish it then it’s worthless. He might as well have come up with no plan for all it’s worth.



Comments are closed.