By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto’s Cuban trainer Pedro Diaz has faith that Cotto can beat undefeated WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) when they meet up on December 1st at the Madison Square Garden, New York, New York.

Diaz said to Elnuevodia.com “This fits well with the technical characteristics of Miguel, fighting a southpaw. He [Trout] has a few things, but Miguel is a complete fighter.”

Diaz also doesn’t see the 26-year-old Trout’s 2 1/2″ height and 5″ reach advantage as being a problem for Cotto to deal with either.

I think Diaz should be concerned because Trout knows how to use his height and reach to his advantage, and he could give the 5’7″ Cotto fits if he stays on the outside and jabs him all night long.

Trout also has been stamina than Cotto, and has never shown any signs of wearing down late in his previous fights. Diaz is working on Cotto’s stamina to try and build it up so he doesn’t gas out like he did in his last fight, a 12 round unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May. Cotto would have likely won the fight had he not tired out after the 8th round.

Cotto fading late in his fights isn’t something new. He’s faded late in fights against Joshua Clottey, Manny Pacquiao, Oktay Urkal, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley. Cotto seems to do alright when the pace of the fight is nice and slow for him, but if he gets pushed and pressured, he wears down quick.

Trout isn’t really pressure fighter, but he could still make things difficult for Cotto if he’s able to force Cotto to work harder than he wants to.

I think Cotto made a big mistake by choosing Trout to fight because this is a very good boxer and he’ll potentially make things difficult for Cotto. However, Cotto really doesn’t have a lot of options. The 154 pound division has improved a lot and there’s no longer any real easy options now. Guys like Saul Alvarez, Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara are fighters that would give Cotto fits.