Mayweather and Cotto have a history

By Boxing News - 02/03/2012 - Comments

Image: Mayweather and Cotto have a historyBy Robert Elmore: The announcement of welterweight WBC champion Floyd Mayweather taking on World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto was of no shock to me. These two have a history together. And it’s a fight that should have taken place years ago.

Contrary to popular belief that Mayweather ducked Cotto, it was two words that kept this fight from happening; Bob Arum. In 2006 Floyd Mayweather was set to face Antonio Margarito on August 12th of that year for 8 million dollars. Arum said Mayweather had no problem facing Margarito, but he wanted a 10 million dollar guarantee to fight Cotto and Ricky Hatton. The problem came when Arum only offered him 7 million.

Instead Mayweather bought out his contract for 750,000 dollars and took over his own career. I can’t really blame Mayweather for making this move. Why fight for 8 million and then take a pay cut in his next bout? Mayweather was set to fight Cotto after Mayweather took apart Arturo Gatti. But it was Arum who said it was too soon and he needed to build up the fight some more.

According to Mayweather, the fight was supposed to take place after the Henry Bruseles fight whom he took apart in eight rounds. Bruseles was a “test” fight to see how Mayweather would fare against Cotto. It is also note worthy that Cotto was Bruseles’s lead sparring partner.

Cotto Destroys Arums Options

First off kudos to Cotto for sticking to his guns and weight draining himself to fight Manny Pacquiao. Cotto was forced to fight Manny at a catch weight of 145 pounds or be stripped of his WBO title. This time around Cotto held the cards and played them right. In doing this, it forced Arum to match Bradley against Pacquiao. I don’t think Arum had plans of doing this fight so soon. When Bradley first signed, the intention was to build Bradley up first and then get him a fight with Pac. Many suspected this fight would happen as soon as the news broke that Bradley signed. I didn’t agree at first because of the fact that nobody really knew Bradley and it might take a couple fights to get him recognized. But with Arum, one never knows. With Arum out of the picture, Cotto can make the most money he’s made in his career.

Mayweather’s Popularity Will Show With This fight

The idea for Manny facing the same opponents that Mayweather had previously faced was to show that the Filipino could do it better. He has yet to do so. The Cotto/Pac fight did 1.2 million. Mayweather/Cotto will surpass that number with ease especially with the undercard that Golden Boy is putting together. Mayweather will probably not knock out the Puerto Rican, but I believe he will win. And by the way, Miguel Cotto is not Mexican and he’s fighting on Cico De Mayo.



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