Cotto: I’m going to be the first guy to beat Mayweather

By Boxing News - 05/02/2012 - Comments

Image: Cotto: I'm going to be the first guy to beat Mayweather(PHOTO CREDIT: Gene Blevins – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotion) By Chris Williams: Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) fancies himself as being the fighter that makes history by handing Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) the first loss in his long 16-year pro career this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cotto said this at the final press conference with Mayweather: “I am going to be the first guy to beat Mayweather.”

For that to happen, Cotto is going to have to fight the best fight of his career on Saturday, because Cotto has never shown the kind of talent that would suggest that he can beat Mayweather. Cotto lacks the hand speed and a well balanced offense to beat a fighter like Mayweather. Like his old trainer Emanuel Steward pointed out recently, Cotto mainly uses his left hand and rarely throws rights.

That’s going to be a problem for Cotto, because guys that give Mayweather problems are two-fisted fighters, not limited one-armed power punchers. If Cotto was a Julian Jackson type puncher, then it wouldn’t matter because he’d eventually connect with one of his big left hands and likely KO Mayweather with a single punch.

However, Cotto doesn’t have the lethal Jackson power in his left hand nor in his fight, and that’s where Cotto is going to have problems. He’s going to need to land his left hand a lot to put Mayweather in any kind of trouble, and without a right hand punch to balance out his attack, Cotto is going to be incredibly predictable to the point where Mayweather might only be looking for left hands.

There is someone out there that will eventually beat Mayweather if he fights the wrong guy or sticks around too long, but I don’t see it as being Cotto. Maybe if the fight took place four years ago before Cotto’s beating at the hands of Antonio Margarito in their first fight in July 2008, Cotto might have a chance against Mayweather. But with all the punishment that Cotto took in the loss to Margarito, as well in fights against Joshua Clottey and Manny Pacquiao, I don’t see him capable physically of pulling off an upset and beating Mayweather. To be sure, it’s possible that Cotto could KO Mayweather, but not likely. Cotto won’t out-box Mayweather and that means he’s going to have to knockout him out to get the win. Nobody knocks Mayweather out, nobody!



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