By Chris Williams: It was frightening to see how much punishment that former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s) took in his last fight against the blazing fast Manny Pacquiao in Cotto’s last fight last year in November. Cotto was never remotely competitive with Pacquiao and ended up getting blasted apart round after round until the referee Kenny Bayless finally had mercy on Cotto and put a stop to the fight at 0:55 of the 12th round. Cotto looked like he had just pulled himself out of serious wreckage on the highway, his face red, eyes cut, lips twice their normal size, and his face the color of a ripe tomato.

It was a wonder that Cotto’s corner didn’t step in to halt the slaughter earlier in the fight when it was painfully obvious that he was nothing more than a 5’7″ round punching bag for Pacquiao to gleefully batter over and over again each round. For whatever reason, Cotto’s trainer Joe Santiago left him out there to absorb sickening punishment after the fight was clearly out of reach and not really winnable.

I could see the fight being allowed to continue if Cotto had one punch power but that’s not the kind of fighter he is. Cotto is someone that needs to work hard each round, throw a lot of punches and batter his opponent into the canvas in a systematic manner. That clearly wasn’t going to happen against the likes of Pacquiao.

If this was Cotto’s first fight where things had gotten out of hand on him, then I could understand leaving him out there in hopes of Cotto coming back and possibly winning it late. But we saw in Cotto’s loss to Antonio Margarito in 2008 that he has poor stamina and had taken a vicious beating in that fight. That was the kind of fight where it could have potentially did a number on Cotto and wrecked his ability to take future punishment. At the very least, it was a fight where Cotto sustained some serious cuts and that was enough where he would be susceptible to being cut easier in the future because of the scar tissue around his eyes.

But on Saturday night, Cotto is facing WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s), who has a big size advantage over Cotto and a style of fighting where he hits but doesn’t get hit in return. Foreman could for all practical purposes neutralize Cotto’s power advantage almost immediately by moving a lot and using quick darting attacks to get in and get out before Cotto can land much of anything. The thing is Foreman is the bigger fighter and having a guy his size landing frequently could cause all kinds of nasty problems with Cotto.

I can see Cotto getting cut around the eyes very quickly, and falling behind in the fight. Cotto would then find himself pretty much in the same position that he was in for his last fight against Pacquiao where Cotto is taking huge punishment and not doing much in return. I’d like to think that his new trainer Emanuel Steward, being the wise and experienced trainer that he is, would step in and halt the slaughter to save Cotto from taking needless punishment. I hope that Steward steps in to stop the brutal beating that Cotto will likely absorb on Saturday night, but I have my doubts. I think Steward won’t want to fail with his new fighter and will leave Cotto in a little too long while Steward shifts his mental gears, trying Plan B, C, D, E and F to try and have Cotto turn the fight around.