By Dan Ambrose: HBO analyst questions whether WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto has enough left to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night due to all the wars that Cotto been involved with over the years. Merchant feels that he could possibly be too past his prime to pull off the upset against the undefeated Mayweather, and I certainly agree with that.
Merchant told the latimes.com “Cotto’s had a terrific career, he’s fought everybody who’s been available to him, but there’s a question about his best being in the past…He’s had a lot of hard fights too.”
So true, so true. Cotto has taken a pounding in fights against Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, DeMarcus Corley, Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito, Muhammad Abdullaev, Randall Bailey, Ricardo Torres, Lovemore N’dou, and Yuri Foreman. Cotto won most of those fights, but he took a lot of head shots even in the fights that ended early by knockout.
Torres, Abdullaev, Corley and Foreman all landed really hard shots against Cotto. And Corley, Torres, and Bailey had Cotto briefly stunned, as did Judah. Those are guys that Cotto beat, but in his losses to Margarito and Pacquiao, Cotto took terrible punishment.
Merchant feels that Mayweather wouldn’t have taken a fight with Cotto if he wasn’t certain that he could win it. Indeed, in looking at Mayweather make fun of Cotto’s fighting style by mimicking him with near perfection, it seems that Mayweather knows exactly how Cotto fights and how to go about picking him apart on Saturday.
There’s always the possibility that Cotto could be too much for Mayweather, but I kind of doubt it unless Cotto is able to hurt Mayweather early to put him away. In a 12 round fight, Cotto probably won’t have the stamina to win. Merchant also touched on Cotto’s stamina issues and feels this could be a problem for him against Mayweather.
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