By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (35-2, 38 KO’s) may be the current World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion after stopping Yuri Foreman in the 9th round last year in June, but the way that Cotto looked in that fight, the way that he looked in getting stomped by Manny Pacquiao in the fight before that and the way he went life and death with a very mediocre Joshua Clotty in the fight before the Pacquiao bout, suggests that Cotto may be lucky if he can get by 37-year-old Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s) on March 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

You can pretty much dismiss the Foreman win completely, because Foreman was considered a paper champion, and worse than that, he was fighting on only one good leg. Cotto started off well against the weak punching Foreman, but by the 5th round, Cotto was really starting to get his backside handed to him. If it wasn’t for the leg injury that Foreman sustained in the 7th, I think Cotto would have lost. This isn’t the Cotto that we once knew before he was ripped apart by Antonio Margarito in 2008.

Cotto seems to be badly deteriorated from that fight, and very vulnerable against anyone that can put together some serious combinations for three rounds or more. Even Clottey seemed to have Cotto on the verge of quitting when he opened up with some combinations during the middle of their fight in 2009, and had Cotto bleeding, puffing up and looking like wanted to quit. Mayorga may be a little fat, and not quite what he used to be as a fighter, but he’s more than capable of fighting harder than Clottey. Mayorga has better power and much better offensive skills compared to Clottey. Mayorga can really give Cotto problems in this fight if he goes at Cotto hard for five or six rounds. Cotto just seems shot to me.