By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Sr. believes that WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto will ultimately give his son Floyd Mayweather Jr. a tougher time than what Manny Pacquiao would, according to fighthype.com.
Floyd Sr. told Fighthype.com “Cotto will be a better fight for Floyd than Pacquiao if Pacquiao not on anything. Cotto never lays down and that’s what makes him good.”
That’s funny. But I do agree that Cotto is a better opponent for Mayweather Jr. as in a tougher opponent than Pacquiao. I don’t care that Pacquiao at one time beat a weight drained Cotto during the prime of Pacquiao’s career in 2009. Cotto is better now than he was then due to the improvements made in his game by trainer Emanuel Steward and his new Cuban trainer. Cotto is also a lot stronger now than he was when he fought Pacquiao at a catchweight of 145.
That was an insane thing for Cotto to agree to because he’s probably been a junior middleweight in size for the past four years, and all he did by agreeing to fight Pacquiao at 145, was weaken himself to the point where Pacquiao could actually beat him. Cotto is a lot stronger now and has many ways he can beat his opponents. He adapts and gets better from round to round, and is very difficult to beat because of the changes he makes. Cotto listens to the instructions told to him by his trainer and is able to carry them out.
This makes Cotto very dangerous he’s so naturally strong at this weight. Pacquiao is much less skilled and is completely wild. His trainer Freddie Roach has looked overwhelmed in recent fights with his fighters Amir Khan, Jorge Linares and Pacquiao looking poor. Roach is predictable in the advice he gives and I can’t see him giving Pacquiao any advice that would improve his chances against Mayweather once he starts struggling against him.
Cotto will have to be able to adapt during the course of the rounds because he won’t be able to wait until the end of the round for his trainer Pedro Diaz to come up with ideas for adjustments. If Cotto waits too long, he’ll take too many hits and get cut up. This is why they need to think of different ways for Cotto to react in the ring to what Mayweather is bringing. The good news is that Mayweather is kind of easy to predict. He’s got great boxing instincts but he does a lot of the same things over and over again. Cotto can take advantage of that by planning ahead and setting traps.
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