By John F. McKenna (McJack): When World Boxing Association (WBA) light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) squares off against undefeated superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) on May 5 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas he will have a high mountain to climb.

Cotto was broken both physically and mentally when he suffered a debilitating 11th round TKO at the hands of Antonio Margarito in July 2008. In November 2009 Miguel again suffered a TKO loss in the 12th round to Manny Pacquaio.

Cotto later acknowledged that Margarito was successful in taking away his self confidence in their epic battle. Miguel now concedes that his psyche was also shattered after the loss to Margarito.

The fight started off going very much in Cotto’s favor. But try as he might he could not stop the ever advancing Margarito, who relentlessly bored in, seemingly impervious to his punches. Eventually the tide swung in Antonio’s favor as he continued to wear Miguel down. Finally the fight was stopped in the 11th round with Margarito the victor.

Then the controversy exploded when Margaito allegedly attempted to use illegal hand wraps in his fight with Shane Mosley in January 2009. The illegal wraps were discovered prior to the fight by Mosley’s trainer. Antonio had been heavily favored to win the bout after his spectacular win over Cotto six months prior. But Mosley confounded the boxing pundits when he totally dominated Margarito, scoring a TKO in the 9th round. Mosley’s easy win over Margarito after the illegal wraps were discovered only served to fuel speculation that Antonio may have been using them all along.

In any case Cotto was able to gain some measure of revenge when he stopped Antonio in the 10th round last December. But the Margarito who engaged Miguel in December was damaged goods and clearly not the same fighter who faced Cotto back in 2008. Margarito was fighting with a surgically repaired right eye that had been damaged in November 2010 against Manny Pacquiao. The injured eye was targeted by Cotto, who wound up stopping Antonio in the 10th round of their rematch.

And while Miguel claims that he now has his confidence back, rest assured that “Money” Mayweather will do his best to exploit Cotto’s psyche which is still bound to be somewhat fragile. Emotional scars frequently take longer to heal than physical injuries. It remains to be seen how Cotto will react when he has been totally outclassed by Mayweather for several rounds.