By Dave Lahr: Former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto has been struggling since taking a terrible beating at the hands of the Mexican tornado Antonio Margarito in July 2008. Since that night in which Cotto was stopped in the 11th round and left a bloody mess, Cotto barely got by Joshua Clottey, winning a questionable 12 round split decision last year in June. And then recently, Cotto was taken out in the 12th round by Manny Pacquiao in November 2009. What made that loss even worse for Cotto was how bad he looked in the fight.

Cotto wasn’t competitive at all with Pacquiao, and basically took a beating and forced to run from Manny to survive until the late rounds. And now Cotto is moving up in weight to take on WBA light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman on June 12th, at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Some boxing fans feel that Cotto has been run out of the welterweight division after his loss to Pacquiao.

If Cotto stayed in the division, he would have a very tough time trying to beat the likes of Shane Mosley, Andre Berto and Floyd Mayweather. That trio pretty much rules the welterweight division with an iron fist. Although Cotto defeated Mosley by a close 12 round decision in 2007, that was before Cotto took a beating by Margarito. A fight between Mosley and Cotto right now would be a very hard one for Cotto, and I don’t know that he would finish the fight on his feet judging how bad he looked against both Clottey and Pacquiao.

The light middleweight division is clearly a lot weaker in terms of talent than the welterweight division. Cotto, if he decides to stay at this weight, might be able to find new life with his career. Without a big puncher like James Kirkland in the division, Cotto could somehow hang around and wins some fights. However, I don’t think it’s going to work that way.

I think Foreman could very finish Cotto off when they meet in June and send him into retirement with yet another beating. Foreman has a four inch height advantage over the 5’7” Cotto and has sneaky power. I think Foreman could end up dropping Cotto and giving him a beating along the lines of the one that Pacquiao gave him. I can see why Cotto would want to try and fight Foreman.

He has few knockouts on his record, and a reputation for being a weak puncher. But Foreman seems to have been developing power in the past couple of years and I think he’s going to be a lot more powerful than anyone ever expected him to be. The way I see it, Cotto has made a huge mistake in taking this guy on, and I think it’s going to end badly for him.

A knockout loss to Foreman would be a disaster for Cotto, his third stoppage loss in his last five fights. At that point, I don’t know how he could continue to carry on with his career. Cotto would effectively be in the same identical situation as Jermain Taylor, who has suffered stoppage losses to Kelly Pavlik, Carl Froch, and Arthur Abraham in the past three years. I think it would be a signal that it’s over for Cotto if Foreman gives him a beating and takes him out.