By Dan Ambrose: Photo credit Chris Farina/Top Rank – Promoter Don King was his honest self at Monday’s press conference with his fighter Ricardo Mayorga and his opponent WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. Cotto and Mayorga will be battling it out on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cotto has taken a pounding in most of his recent fights and is taking on a fighter that is just as unpredictable out of the ring as he is in it.

King seemed to feel sorry for Cotto for the beating he’s going to take against his fighter Mayorga on Saturday night, saying “Someone has to be sacrificed on Saturday night and it has to be Cotto and I feel so bad about this.”

This is how I feel as well. Cotto is a likeable enough guy, and that’s a good thing in boxing. However, I think Cotto has taken too many beatings and doesn’t have the ability to take punishment like he used to.

The beatings seem to have left a mark on Cotto in more ways than one because not only does he seem to fall apart when he gets hit a lot, but the scar tissue around his eyes tends to break down rapidly when he’s under fire for even a short amount of time. Cotto is going to need to try and get Mayorga out of there as quick as possible on Saturday night because if Mayorga is still standing past the 8th round, Cotto’s chances of winning will drop dramatically.

By then, Cotto will likely be a bloody mess with blood dripping from both eyes and perhaps a bloody nose to go along with it. To be sure, Mayorga was stopped in 12th round by Shane Mosley in the past, but Mosley had great stamina. Cotto doesn’t. This is why Cotto has to try and take Mayorga out fast because he’s going to be a ticking time bomb if left in there too long.