By Dan Ambrose: In less than three weeks, WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto will be facing his moment of truth in his tough match-up with former two division world champion Ricardo Mayorga at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Some boxing fans see this as an easy fight for the 30-year-old Cotto, but those same fans have turned a blind eye to all the awful punishment that Cotto has taken in the last two years in the ring. He’s not the same fighter he once was after getting pounded by Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito.

Those beatings left a mark on Cotto, and perhaps the only reason he’s the WBA champion now is because his promoter chose to move him up in weight to take on the weak punching paper champion Yuri Foreman last year in June.

Even this version of Cotto was able to beat Foreman. Of course, the job was made much easier because Foreman was fighting on only one good leg and was forced to hobble around much of the fight like a man searching for a good cane. But now Cotto is facing Mayorga, a fighter that really bring it.

Sure, Mayorga may be a little dumpy looking but he can still punch. Once he gets his offense kicked started, he’s going to do a number on Cotto. Unless I miss my guess, Emanuel Steward, Cotto’s trainer, is going to be telling Cotto to move and stay away from Mayorga’s power shots. That will work for a little while but Cotto will revert back to his slugging form and will start getting battered early on.