Steward: Cotto is lowering his head too much in training; Mayweather will take advantage of that

By Boxing News - 04/06/2012 - Comments

Image: Steward: Cotto is lowering his head too much in training; Mayweather will take advantage of thatBy Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto’s old trainer Emanuel Steward doesn’t like what he’s seen of WBA light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto after seeing some of his recent training video. Steward says to eastsideboxing.com “Mayweather will systematically pick him apart.”

Just looking at the preview of the Mayweather-Cotto 24/7 series episode 1, you can see Cotto training with his Cuban trainer Pedro Diaz with his head down always. Having Cotto’s head down like that will invite uppercuts and pretty much anything from Mayweather because Cotto’s head is right there as inviting target due to Cotto’s leaning. Mayweather will take Cotto apart unless his trainer does something to wake him up and break him from his bad habits.

In watching the preview of Cotto’s training, I wasn’t all that impressed with what I was seeing. Diaz has a drill where he tosses balls at Cotto and he moves around catching them. I think that’s a big waste of time. I know that Diaz is working on Cotto’s hand-eye coordination and his agility by doing this drill, but if Cotto makes moves like that in the ring, Mayweather is going to pick him apart and drop him. The drill is a waste.

Cotto needs to be focusing on keeping his head up more when fighting and on trying to jab more and now stand square to his opponents. Cotto still likes to square himself up with his opponents when he fights, and that’s another thing that Mayweather will take advantage of. I don’t know what Diaz is doing but he sure needs to be working on ridding Cotto of his flawed way of fighting instead of keeping it going.

Steward believes that Cotto is going backwards to an earlier, less developed stage in his career before Steward was his trainer. He thinks that Cotto has got to come up with a plan for the Mayweather bout and it’s got to be a good one if he wants to win. Even with the best of plans, Cotto is still likely going to be in way over his head. He’s not as skilled as Mayweather and less able to adapt. His skin and stamina will likely give out on him late in the fight.



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