By John F. McKenna (McJack): Undefeated superstar World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) insists that WBA light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) is a valid and worthy opponent.
Mayweather and Cotto will square off on May 5 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas and were in Hollywood to hype the fight. Floyd was quoted in BBC SPORT BOXING making the following comments:
“To be the best you’ve got to beat the best. I can solidify myself as one of the best fighters to ever live” (against Cotto).
While no one questions that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is in fact a great fighter and perhaps the best fighter of this era it is a little bit of an overstatement to say that beating Miguel Cotto would solidify him as one of the greatest fighters of all time. Floyd is correct when he states that to be the best you have to beat the best. But you have to beat those fighters while they are at the top of their game.
The Miguel Cotto of five years ago was at the top of his game and most likely would have given Mayweather a challenging fight. Since that time however, Cotto suffered two debilitating beat downs. One at the hands of Antonio Margarito when he was stopped in the 11th round in July 2008 and again when he was stopped by Manny Pacquiao in the 12th round in November 2009.
Cotto avenged the loss to Margaritio in December when he scored a TKO against Antonio in the 10th round. But the victory over Margarito was against a damaged fighter. Antonio had suffered a broken orbital bone in his right eye a year prior against Manny Pacquiao. Cotto made a target of the surgically repaired eye and when the eye closed due to swelling the referee was forced to stop the fight.
It goes without saying that Miguel Cotto is still a very good fighter. He is not the elite fighter however, that he was five years ago. And if a fighter wants to go down in boxing history as an all time great he must take on the other elite fighters of his own era. Joe Louis fought everyone out there. So did Sugar Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Muhammad Ali.
Floyd Mayweather Jr., although a great fighter, will never be considered by boxing historians to be in the same league as Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali. He does not fight frequently enough and he refuses to fight the other elite fighters of his own era.
It is pretty clear now to even some of Mayweather’s hardcore fans that he really does not want to face Manny Pacquiao in the ring. It is unfortunate too because it is this writers opinion that Floyd would have a very good chance at being victorious against Manny.
Mayweather has pretty well exhausted every imaginable excuse not to fight “Pacman” and even now still throws the drug testing issue out there when in reality that has not been an issue for months. “Money May’s” assertion also that no one will ever get a 50 – 50 split with him is absurd. Manny Pacquiao is an eight division champion and fighter of the decade for the years 2000 – 20009 as well as being a perennial top pound for pound fighter. In addition, in recent fights Manny has outsold Floyd in Pay Per View (PPV) sales as well as live gate attendance.
It is the tendency for people, boxers included, to make excuses when they do not want to do something. When one excuse is shot down, they simply come up with an endless list of ridiculous excuses. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has now fallen into that category.
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