By Dan Ambrose: For boxing fans to get really interested in the May 5th fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, Mayweather will have to play the bad guy because Cotto won’t likely bring much fire or personality to the press conferences or the Mayweather-Cotto 24/7 episodes aired on HBO and CNN.
Cotto is a tiny improvement over Manny Pacquiao because you can understand him a little better, but he’s not going to much in terms of generating excitement, especially if he’s not going to be showing any emotion on his feet. That’s the problem. Cotto looks sometimes like he’s totally bored when interviewed and makes you doubt his chances unless he’s fighting someone way over-matched.
Tonight the Mayweather/Cotto Face off with Max Kellerman will be shown on HBO starting at 8:45 p.m. ET/PT. I already saw a preview of the face off and neither guy was saying much of anything. Cotto basically had nothing to say, while Mayweather was busy complimenting Cotto, and giving the old bit about 42 have tried and 42 have failed line. Cotto isn’t going to be much of any help in getting people energized about the fight, so it’s going to be up to Mayweather to start ripping into Cotto and telling him what he’s going to do to him on May 5th. Mayweather can’t play it nice.
He’s going to have to tear Cotto apart before the fight to make sure this thing is marketed correctly. It’s already bad that Cotto hasn’t fought anyone good for the past three years, making it harder for boxing fans to connect to this fight and see it as a competitive one. Cotto doesn’t have much of a chance unless Mayweather suddenly loses his hand speed and becomes a shot fighter overnight. I don’t see that happening. Mayweather has got to take some tips from Ricard Mayorga in getting Cotto riled before their fight last year. Mayorga did a great job of marketing the fight by getting under Cotto’s skin big time.
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