Cotto-Mayorga: Look for Miguel to get chopped to pieces by Ricardo

By Boxing News - 01/17/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) has been though six very hard fights since 2005, and taken an enormous amount of punishment in each of those fights. Even in his recent win over Yuri Foreman, Cotto was hit with some mammoth shots. There’s whispers out there among Cotto’s loyal fans that he’s no longer the same fighter he once was. I don’t need to hear the whispers to see that Cotto has noticeably deteriorated in the last three years with the beatings he taken in the ring.

On March 12th, Cotto is going to be facing a bigger and perhaps stronger fighter than him in former two division world champion Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s) in a Showtime pay-per-view bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayorga, 37, isn’t the same fighter he once was either, as he now looks chunky and appears to be carrying around at least 20 pounds of extra flab compared to his leaner days in the early 90s. However, Mayorga’s punch hasn’t abandoned him and nor has his aggressiveness and unorthodox attacking style.

He’s a much different type of fighter compared to the more polished and technically oriented fighters that Cotto has been facing recently. But it’s his power and aggressiveness that has me worried for Cotto. Mayorga may not have the stamina that he once had in the past, but he can do plenty of damage in 12 rounds of action before he runs out of gas. As this point in his career, I see Mayorga as a 10 round fighter and someone that can really bring it hard for 10 rounds. After the 10th, Mayorga doesn’t look the same and is very beatable.

But if Mayorga fights all out for 10 rounds, I don’t think there’s going to be anything left of Cotto by the time Mayorga fades. Cotto has too much scar tissue around his eyes, and he’s taken too many brutal shots to the head. He may now have Emanuel Steward training him, but I don’t see that helping Cotto any against the likes of Mayorga. Once the bleeding starts on Cotto’s face, he’s going to start doubting himself and quickly crumble mentally to the point where he’ll be ready to start taking knees to end his suffering at the hands of Mayorga. The thing is Mayorga knows this and will be looking to put a serious hurting on Cotto as quickly as possible to get him to quit once again.



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