Arum sees Mayorga as being an explosive puncher for Cotto

By Boxing News - 01/18/2011 - Comments

By Jason Kim: Bob Arum isn’t dismissing the threat that Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s) poses for his fighter WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) for their fight on March 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arum realizes that Mayorga can still punch and could be problems for Cotto in this fight.

In an interview at boxingtalk.com, Arum had this to say about Mayorga: “Well, you never know with Mayorga. But certainly when you compared Mayorga to [Manny] Pacquiao that’s certainly the case. When you compare Mayorga to [Yuri] Foreman, I would say Foreman is the more skilled fighter, but Mayorga has explosiveness.” You can say that again. Mayorga has better power than Foreman and is able to throw with combinations. He’s going to come in and put some shots together against Cotto and will be testing both his skin and his chin in this fight.

Cotto will be there to be hit that’s for sure. Cotto’s a little more elusive compared to the way he once was now that he’s being trained by Emanuel Steward, but he’s still very hittable. In his win over Foreman last June, Cotto started off well jabbing and moving in the early part of the fight, but Cotto quickly resorted to brawling and by the 7th round, Cotto was getting hit regularly by Foreman. Had Foreman not injured his right leg in that fight, there’s no telling what would have happened. Mayorga will be putting pressure on Cotto and landing power shots. If Cotto’s chin isn’t what it once was, we’ll find out soon enough due to the pounding that Mayorga is going to be putting on him.



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