Mayweather: I still see Cotto as an unbeaten fighter

By Boxing News - 03/01/2012 - Comments

Image: Mayweather: I still see Cotto as an unbeaten fighterBy Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. feels that WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) has been done a bad turn in the only two blemishes on his career record, pointing to Cotto’s loss against Antonio Margarito in 2008 in which some boxing fans suspect that Margarito fought Cotto with loaded handwraps. With Cotto loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2009, Cotto fought Pacquiao at a catchweight that benefited Pacquiao rather than himself.

Mayweather said this as quoted by USAToday “I look at Miguel Cotto as an undefeated fighter, because Miguel Cotto fought one fighter at a catchweight to where he wasn’t full strength. Same with Oscar De La Hoya [he fought Pacquiao at a 145lbs in 2008]. I don’t want to fight a guy at a catchweight. I want to fight a guy at 154. He’s solid, he can eat, he feels good, and he can go out there and perform at his best.”

I can see what Mayweather is talking about and I really respect what he’s saying. It shows real courage to fight Cotto at the full 154 pound weight instead of looking to get an advantage over him by asking for a catchweight handicap to weaken him enough to where he’ll lose badly. That’s not good boxing to me. It’s like getting a degree that you needed extra help to get. I see catchweight fights as like standing on a box to reach a prize instead of getting there without help.

It’s hard to say what really happened in the Cotto-Margarito fight because there’s no way of telling. Only Margarito and his trainer know what whether he fought with loaded gloves are not. All people can do is speculate but it’ll never be something that can be proven. But as far as the Pacquiao-Cotto catchweight fight, I do believe that really hurt Cotto and weakened in a major way for the fight. It’s too bad because Cotto took a beating in that fight, lost his title and Pacquiao got a catchweight victory. That was one of two catchweight title victories for Pacquiao; his other being his win over Margarito at a 150 pound catchweight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title in November 2010.



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