By Chris Williams: There’s no mistaking the fact that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) is an expert counter puncher and who makes his opponents pay dearly for almost everything they throw. It’s rare that Mayweather doesn’t come back immediately with a hard shot when his opponent attempts to land something.

I say “attempts” because they off miss badly because of Mayweather’s outstanding defensive ability. WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) will be the next fighter that tries his luck at besting Mayweather. Cotto is a slower, weaker, older and shorter fighter than Mayweather’s last opponent Victor Ortiz, who despite all of these positive attributes he still ended up getting taken out in the 4th round. Cotto may last longer than four rounds, because I don’t expect him to do anything crazy like dropping his guard to try and apologize and hug Mayweather after he accidentally fouls him.

That’s not Cotto’s style. When he fouls, such as throwing low blows, he merely stares at his opponent impassively like a big shark while they role around on the canvas in pain. He never apologizes and it’s back to business once the action resumes. For this reason, Cotto will last longer than Ortiz but he won’t be any more competitive because he doesn’t have Ortiz’s skills and he’s older.

Mayweather said to examiner.com “With Mayweather you can’t make no mistakes, because if you make a mistake you must pay. I am a true champion.”

That sounds like an ominous warning from Mayweather about bad things yet to come. Cotto is going to be trying to bring it offensively because that’s his style. He’ll jab for a while, but his main bread and butter is his big shots and combination punching. His new trainer Pedro Diaz has Cotto throw more combinations than Cotto’s last trainer Emanuel Steward. That’s a positive against most opponents, but against Mayweather it’s going to be a serious negative because he’s going to have multiple opportunities for him to land his big shots. Cotto will be looking to land, but he’s going to have to pay the piper each time he swings.

If Cotto had good skin that didn’t rip to shreds after a few rounds of him getting hit, I’d say he might have a decent chance of standing in there with Mayweather for a while. But Cotto’s skin rips like rice paper when it gets hit. It not only rips, but it swells up something nasty around the eyes and he’s just there looking like a blister bag ready to pop. That’s when he starts getting busted up. Mayweather’s counter shots are going to make a mess of Cotto in this fight and it’s going to be probably over by the 5th or 6th rounds at best.