By Jason Kim: Recently, WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-, 28 KO’s) opted to sit out the remainder of 2010 rather than taking on either Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KO’s) or Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KO’s). Cotto says he wants to fight mainly popular fighters, but I really wonder if that’s the reason he didn’t decide on fighting Cintron or Martirosyan. In looking at how bad Cotto looked in beating Yuri Foreman in his last fight in June, I think Cotto would have been in big trouble against either Martirosyan or Cintron.

And, I don’t see those guys as the best fighters in the junior middleweight division, but I do think either of them can beat Cotto at this point in his career. I don’t think he’s the same fighter since his 11th round TKO loss to Antonio Margarito. He seems different now, and much more vulnerable. Cotto has only been beaten once since the loss to Margarito, when he was stopped by Manny Pacquiao last year in a 12th round TKO in November.

However, Cotto looked like he was well on his way to losing to Joshua Clottey in his fight with him in June 2009. Luckily for Cotto, Clottey suddenly stopped punching in the 10th round and spent the remainder of the fight just covering up like a dutiful sparring partner on the ropes. I think Cotto would have lost that fight if he had taken on better fighter than Clottey. In Cotto’s fight with Foreman, Cotto was getting lite up until Foreman hurt his bad leg in the 7th.

After that, Cotto was facing a one legged fighter and was able to take Foreman out in the 9th.

I think Cotto is basically just playing out his string and is going to avoid guys like Martirosyan and Cintron for the remainder of his career. Cotto’s fights are pretty well planned for 2011. He’s going to be fighting rematches with both Margarito and Pacquiao, and then taking on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. I suspect that Cotto will lose all three fights badly.

I think Cotto could beat Chavez Jr. if he fought him at the start of 2011, but if he waits until after he’s been destroyed again by Margarito and Pacquiao, there won’t be enough left of Cotto to beat even Chavez, who I don’t even rate as a fighter. I think Cotto would be beaten by an injury free Foreman, Sergeii Dzinziruk, Paul Williams, Alfredo Angulo, Shane Mosley, Martirosyan, Cintron, Fernando Guerrero, Selcuk Aydin, Andre Berto, Mike Jones, Floyd Mayweather, and Saul Alvarez.