Roach wants Mayweather for Cotto if he beats Canelo

By Boxing News - 11/19/2015 - Comments

1-cotto-vs-alvarez (14)By Dan Ambrose: Despite Floyd Mayweather Jr. being retired since September 12th following his 12 round decision win over Andre Berto, trainer Freddie Roach still thinks he’ll be coming back to face his fighter WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) if he can beat Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOS) this weekend in their fight on HBO PPV.

Mayweather would be taking a huge pay cut by facing Cotto rather than Manny Pacquiao, however, as there wouldn’t be as much interest from fans in seeing Mayweather fight Cotto a second time.

“I would love for Cotto to win this fight by knockout, call out Mayweather and then end it,” Roach said to ESPN.com. “He always tells me ‘If I had you in my corner when I fought him I would have knocked him out.’ He tells me that story all the time.”

What’s interesting here is that Roach isn’t saying anything about wanting Cotto to fight Gennady Golovkin next. He’s the one who deserves a big money fight against Cotto, not Mayweather, who already beat Cotto three years ago. By Roach harping on Mayweather coming back to fight Cotto again, it just looks like Roach can’t let Mayweather be. Roach’s fighter Manny Pacquiao just got beaten soundly by Mayweather last September, and now Roach is trying to find someone else that he hopes can beat Mayweather.

I’m surprised that Cotto isn’t telling Roach that he would have knocked Pacquiao and Austin Trout out if he had him in his corner for those fights. The problem with Cotto focusing on past fights and wondering could have been had he been trained by Roach, he should be putting his energy on the Canelo fight this Saturday.

It’s no use for Cotto to be stuck reliving failed past battles, and wishing things had been another way. The only thing he can do now is not make the same mistakes now as he did back then.

“I think Cotto could pull off the strategy I had for Pacquiao, but I think Manny was a little bit smaller and not as strong as Miguel,” Roach said. “Cotto is a bigger and stronger guy and I think it would be a good fight for him. I think I can put him in a very aggressive mode for that fight. He always tells me, ‘I would have killed him, Freddie, with your game plan.’”

I doubt that Roach would make any difference for Cotto in a second or even third fight against Mayweather. The only reason Cotto was able to land any of his punches in his fight with Mayweather is because Mayweather chose to slug with him by standing stationary for the first eight rounds of the contest.

When Mayweather decided to start using his mobility starting in the 9th, Cotto was lost and unable to do anything at all. Mayweather easily won the last four rounds of that fight get the victory. In a rematch between them, Mayweather would use movement the entire fight and win an easily 12 round decision. There would be no handicaps for Cotto and Roach. They would have to deal with a mobile Mayweather, and that would be a nightmare for them.

Cotto does have some options if he beats Canelo on Saturday. Cotto can look to fight Pacquiao, Gennady Golovkin, Tim Bradley, Terence Crawford, Kell Brook, Amir Khan, Andy Lee, Billy Joe Sauders, Peter Quillin, or Daniel Jacobs. Only the Pacquiao fight would be a huge one for Cotto, but it’s better than Cotto electing to fight Golovkin and getting knocked out.



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