(Photo credit: Casino/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight contender Matthew Macklin believes that WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) is getting Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) at the right point in his career to where he’s not the same fighter he once was years ago. Trout and Cotto will be fighting on December 1st at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York.

Macklin said to RingTV “It it was Cotto in his prime, then I would say Cotto. But the timing of the fight might suit Trout. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an upset.”

It might not be an upset with the real boxing experts, because many of them are already picking the 27-year-old Trout to take care of the soon to be 32-year-old Cotto on December 1st. Cotto will be turning 32 this month on October 29th and he’s starting to show his age in a big way. Never really quick or big to start with, Cotto’s speed has slowed and his power never carried up with him when he moved up to junior middleweight.

Cotto isn’t going to knockout Trout, and if you don’t knock out Trout you don’t win. Trout has a HUGE advantage over the shorter-armed Cotto in terms of boxing skills and I don’t expect Cotto to be able to do much against him other than swing for the fences all night long.

Macklin is well familiar with Trout because he worked with him to get ready for his title shot against Sergio Martinez earlier this year in March. Macklin didn’t win the fight but he gave Martinez a lot of trouble. Macklin had problems with the southpaw Trout during the sparring sessions, which is understandable because he’s exceptional fighter.

I don’t really know what Cotto can do to win this fight against Trout, because he’s out-sized, out-quicked and out-skilled in this one. I guess the only thing Cotto can do is bum rush Trout and just look to land a big head shots that can take him out. It’s going to be real desperate stuff from Cotto in this one.