By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) is in a strange situation right now where he’s been rewarded with appreciation from boxing fans despite getting beaten in his last fight by Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May in a 12 round unanimous decision loss for Cotto.

The loss was pretty one-sided in the scorecards, but since Cotto landed more shots against Mayweather than any other fight other than Jose Luis Castillo, Cotto has won respect. Unfortunately, respect is a fleeting thing that can disappear overnight based on how a fighter performs subsequent fights.

This is perhaps why I think Cotto needs to stand up his hide legs and go after newly crowned WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley to see if he can snatch him up for a fight while Manny Pacquiao is still undecided about whether or not he wants to fight him again.

By putting his name into the hat, Cotto might just get lucky by lining up an opponent that he would have a a great chance of beating. I think it’s better that for Cotto than for him to take one of the top junior middleweights, who don’t offer much in terms of fan interest and who would likely beat Cotto.

Guys like James Kirkland, Erislandy Lara, Sergiy Dzinziruk, Austin Trout, Alfredo Angulo and Vanes Martirosyan all would probably beat Cotto if they were to fight him. And the thing of it is, Cotto wouldn’t get much for fighting them. Cotto needs fighters like Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. to get the big money.

But since those guys aren’t likely to fight him next, Cotto needs to select the next best option and that’s definitely Bradley. The reason why Bradley is a good pick is because he can’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag, and the most that Cotto would have to worry about in a fight against him is being head-butted.

Cotto might have to do some chasing in order to catch up to Bradley if he decides to run like he did against Pacquiao, but Cotto has a good jab and cuts off the ring well against runners. I think it’s a good fight for Cotto and he’s making a mistake by keeping quiet about it. He needs to be the first guy that beats Bradley while he still has the WBO title belt.