By Dan Ambrose: The Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight has given WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto more motivation than he’s had in years, saying more than he’s had since he first won a world title years ago. Cotto has had big fights since then against Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito, but for some reason Mayweather stands out for him.
Cotto said “I feel more motivated a this point than any other [fight] in my career. I feel more motivated to beat Mayweather than I did when I was training for my first world title.”
I can respect that. Who wouldn’t get motivated for fighting Mayweather. After all, he’s number #2 in The Ring’s pound-for-pound ranking and there’s talk that he could be moved to the number #1 spot very soon. Motivation for a fight against Mayweather isn’t surprising because he’s considered to be the best fighter in boxing by a lot of people.
Besides that, the Cotto vs. Mayweather fight will be watched by literally millions of fans from all across the globe. Having that many people see the fight has a natural way of motivating anyone. Cotto wants to be seen doing well in front of the millions of strangers that will be plunking down $59.95 to watch the fight on PPV on May 5th.
Cotto has a lot to prove to people, many of which see him as a partially shot fighter because of how he’s declined since his loss to Margarito in 2008. Cotto hasn’t faced anyone good to show that decline but it’s there none the less. Motivation is nice to have, but if that’s all you got to try and beat a fighter like Mayweather, well that’s not enough. You need more than that. Mayweather is just too good to be beaten on a fighter with a high enthusiasm. Cotto has got to fight well and do the right things in this fight. Cotto probably won’t because you practice how you’re going to perform in the fight. Cotto hasn’t looked good in training and is making mistakes left and right that will get him beaten by Mayweather. The thing is Cotto’s trainer doesn’t seem to be fixing the biggest flows that I’ve noticed.
Cotto will no doubt come into tip top shape on May 5th, but being in good condition is only one small part of what he’ll need to beat Mayweather. Cotto needs good skills and he has so much to learn right now that it’s not even funnhy.
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