Lampley: Mayweather to fight Cotto on May 2nd

By Boxing News - 01/25/2015 - Comments

cotto674By Dan Ambrose: HBO commentator Jim Lampley is saying that WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) will be facing WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) next on May 2nd. It’s unclear how Lampley knows about this fight, but it could be he’s privy to some inside knowledge from the Mayweather or Cotto camp.

The way that Lampley spoke about the Mayweather-Cotto fight, he seemed to be speaking from from someone who knows what he’s talking about.

“Rios-Cotto is not going to happen. Cotto is going to fight Mayweather on May 2,” Lampley said to esnewsreporting.com. “Then fights not made yet. I think its 60-40 Mayweather, but Cotto has a shot.”

None of this, of course, has been confirmed, so you’ve got take it for what it’s worth. Lampley could be just guessing, but then again he very well could have knowledge about the Mayweather-Cotto fight.

For Pacquiao fans, this has got to be seen as bad news because they’ve been looking forward to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight for some time now and it’s got to be a real disappointment to them to see their fighter miss out on the fight with Mayweather once again.

Mayweather and Pacquiao have been trying to work out a deal between them for a fight on May 2nd, but the negotiations have slowed over the Showtime-HBO deal. There’s also been some other problems unrelated to the HBO and Showtime deal that has slowed the negotiations.

While Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have agreed on some of the major negotiation proposals for the fight, there are still other issues that are still lingering. If Mayweather is willing to walk away from the Pacquiao negotiations then it must be a big enough problem for Mayweather to have gotten fed up to the point where he no longer wanted to deal with the headache of the negotiations.

The beauty of the Mayweather-Cotto 2 fight is that it’s a bout that will pay Mayweather a lot of money due to the huge interest the fight would create, as well as the high number of pay-per-view buys it would generate. It’s unclear whether the fight would need to overcome the same hurdles as the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight as far as HBO and Showtime having to work out a deal. But it’s still a great fight that would be a good money maker for Mayweather.

The fight would also help Mayweather get a chance to beat Cotto in a more convincing manner than he did in their previous fight in 2012. Mayweather beat Cotto by a 12 round unanimous decision in that bout after deciding to stand in the pocket and trading with him for 12 rounds instead of using his legs to out-box him. Mayweather ended up bloodied in the fight in one of the toughest bouts of his career, but he was able to wear Cotto down to get a decision.

If Mayweather faces Cotto on May 2nd, then he can resume the Pacquiao negotiations afterwards and look to face him in September on the Mexican Independence Day holiday. It’ll give Mayweather the opportunity to finish his Showtime contract with two big fights.



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