By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. still hopes to fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao at some point in the near future if the two fighters can agree to the money split among other things before they can step into the ring.

Mayweather, however, has an important fight coming up next month against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and this fight could ruin Mayweather’s chances of ever getting a bout against Pacquiao if he loses to Cotto.

Few people are giving Cotto a chance to win this fight, and that could play into the Puerto Rican’s favor because he doesn’t have a lot of pressure on him and whatever he does in the ring, he’ll likely be fighting beyond everyone’s expectations. But Mayweather has to see him a real threat to beating him, because if he overlooks Cotto in any way, he could find himself taking a lot of punishment in losing to him. Cotto has the power advantage over Mayweather and a better jab as well. Those are two very important factors that Cotto has going for him.

The one thing that Cotto may need for him to beat Mayweather on May 5th is a high work rate. In Mayweather’s two fights against Jose Luis Castillo, Mayweather had problems with Castillo’s nonstop punching. Those were very close fights because Castillo was able to ramp up his work rate to a high level that kept Mayweather covering up and throwing sporadic counter shots.

That’s how you beat a counter puncher. You have to throw an enormous amount of shots to put them in a point where they’re not able to counter everything that’s being thrown at them. The only thing that Cotto would need to worry about is cuts and getting hurt by one of Mayweather’s big counters that he might not see coming until it’s too late.

For Cotto to beat Mayweather, all he needs to do is put him under pressure, use his jab constantly and make Mayweather pay for every shot he throws. Ideally, Cotto needs to back Mayweather up and try to keep him on the ropes if possible. Mayweather is dangerous in the center of the ring because of his ability to throw from different angles. Mayweather is still a problem in close against the ropes but he’s not as dangerous because he’s not able to load up with his shots. Cotto just needs to keep him pinned to the ropes to work his body and head. Cotto shouldn’t throw any wide hooks because this will leave him open for Mayweather’s short counter punches.