By Chris Williams: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr would be barking up the wrong tree if he were to move up to the 160 pound division to challenge the 34-year-old Cotto for his World Boxing Council title.
Roach thinks that Mayweather would be too small if he were to move up a couple of divisions to face Cotto, even though Mayweather currently holds the WBA/WBC junior middleweight titles and is actually taller than the 5’7” Cotto.
Mayweather beat Cotto at junior middleweight three years ago in winning a 12 round unanimous decision in May of 2012. At that time, Mayweather took Cotto’s WBA Super World junior middleweight title from him, and he’s had that belt ever since.
Given that there’s only six pounds of difference between the 154 pound and 160 pound division, I don’t see why Mayweather would have any problems facing Cotto for his WBC strap at middleweight.
Cotto won the WBC middleweight title over 39-year-old Sergio Martinez at a catch-weight of 159 pounds, so it’s not as if Cotto has fought at the full weight for the class. That’s only five pounds over the 154 pound division where Mayweather beat Cotto in the past.
“If Mayweather pops up then we’ll probably fight him at a lower weight,” Roach said to Thaboxingvoice.com. “Unless Mayweather wants that [WBC middlweight] belt that badly, I would say he’s too small for 160lbs. I think [Cotto] is a little heavy for [Mayweather] at 160lbs, he’s not that big of a guy.”
I don’t think the extra weight would help Cotto at all in a second fight against Mayweather. They could probably have the fight at super middleweight, and Mayweather would still beat Cotto.
The only thing it would mean is that Mayweather would use move more movement to get the better of Cotto. Marcos Maidana weighed 165 pounds for the first fight against Mayweather and he still lost.
Maidana is just as good a puncher as Cotto is, if not better. If Maidana couldn’t beat Mayweather while weighing 165 pounds, then Cotto wouldn’t have any better luck at being able to use a little bit of extra size in a rematch.
Roach wouldn’t have anything to do with what weight the two fighters came in. If Mayweather decided he wanted to take Cotto’s WBC middleweight strap, then that’s where the fight would take place in the middleweight division. It’s not even sporting for Mayweather to fight Cotto again unless he can accomplish something like winning his WBC title.
In an ideal world, Cotto would simply face Gennady Golovkin before he gets stripped of the title later this year, but I just don’t see that happening.
“I talked to Gaby [Penacaricano, Cotto’s adviser] and he started negotiations with a couple of other guys out there whose names I don’t know,” Roach said.
Roach isn’t being told who Cotto will be fighting next, but it’s very likely to be someone like Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios rather than a middleweight. It’s going to look bad obviously if Cotto doesn’t defend against a middleweight.
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