By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto’s ex-trainer Emanuel Steward thinks that Cotto blew it by failing to use his jab enough in his recent 12 round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 5th. Steward saw the fight there for the taking of Cotto had fought behind a strong jab the entire fight.

In addition to that, Steward thinks Mayweather would have stopped Cotto if he wanted to when he had him badly hurt in the 12th round from a big left uppercut to the head.

Steward said to On the Ropes Boxing Radio “If Floyd would have stepped it up I have no doubt in my mind that he would have knocked out Miguel. I feel very strongly Miguel was hurt. Floyd, he made a decision to go ahead and win the fight.”

True, very true. Floyd seemed to have mercy on Cotto by deciding to let him finish on his feet rather than being cruel and looking to obliterate the guy when he was badly hurt by Floyd’s big left uppercut in the 12th. Floyd was like a cat playing with a stunned mouse that he had no interest in eating and just wanted to play.

Mayweather could have blown Cotto out in the 12th if he wanted to, but he took it easy once he had Cotto hurt, and actually backed off and avoided him by using movement after Cotto was out on his feet.

I don’t think it would have mattered whether Cotto used his jab more often or not. I still think he would have lost by eight rounds to Mayweather, because he didn’t have the stamina to fight hard in the last four rounds after using up all his energy trying to take Mayweather out in the 8th round. In hindsight, Cotto should have saved his energy for the last four rounds instead of using up his energy in the 8th round and having nothing left.