By Chris Williams: I’m beginning to think their may be a silver lining to WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) if he gets beaten up and put out of his misery by former two division world champion Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s) in their fight on March 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. At least by destroying Cotto, it will save boxing fans from having to witness a second future Manny Pacquiao fight in 2011, and that may be well worth it. If there’s any fight I don’t want to see, besides the ridiculous Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley bout, it’s a needless rematch between Pacquiao and Cotto in 2011.

Bob Arum, their promoter, wants to put them back in with each other to cash out more with them before they retire from the sport. I don’t see the point in a rematch between them, because Pacquiao definitively proved that he’s the much better fighter in his 12th round knockout win last year over Cotto. We don’t need to see the two fighters go at it again just because it will make money for Arum, Pacquiao and Cotto. Forget that. I want to see Pacquiao put in with guys that actually have a chance of winning instead of all these old or beaten up fighters that have been getting selected for Pacquiao in the past couple of years.

Mayorga obviously has been picked for Cotto because they believe Mayorga is on his last leg, but yet still has a big enough name to draw in gullible fans who will be willing to pay good money on pay-per-view to see this bout. But I think Mayorga has a decent chance of knocking Cotto out if he can come up him hard for six rounds. If you pressure Cotto hard and land a lot of shots for six rounds, I can see the guy mentally folding up when he starts getting cut and starts bleeding badly. I’m really hoping Cotto loses if for no other reason that I don’t want to see a Pacquiao-Cotto rematch in the future. Knowing how things have been recently, it probably won’t matter if Cotto loses to both Mayorga and Antonio Margarito. He’ll still likely get another fight with Pacquiao. As we’ve seen, getting beaten up in recent fights doesn’t disqualify fighters for bouts against Pacquiao. They get them anyway.