Cotto: Mayweather is not taking advantage of anyone

By Boxing News - 02/29/2012 - Comments

Image: Cotto: Mayweather is not taking advantage of anyoneBy Chris Williams: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto has nothing but the utmost respect for undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. for moving up in weight to face him for his World Boxing Association title on May 5th and NOT asking for a catch weight handicap in order to get some kind of advantage over Cotto.

Cotto said this about Mayweather at their press conference in Puerto Rico: “Mayweather is not taking advantage of anyone but the fight looked like it had to do the best challenge possible. The respect is mutual; he wants my title and moved up in division. That’s being a real fighter, a true champion.”

It’s not hard to read between the lines to see that Cotto is taking a shot at Manny Pacquiao, who was able to get Cotto to agree to a catch weight handicap for himself when he faced Cotto in 2009 when Cotto was the WBO welterweight champion. In order to get the fight with Pacquiao, Cotto agreed to come down in weight to 145 to give Pacquiao the catch weight advantage he wanted. However, when two fighters attempted to put together a fight recently, Pacquiao refused to agree to fight Cotto at a catch weight of 150lbs and wanted him to come all the way down to 147 to make the fight happen.

Cotto wanted Pacquiao to return the favor of a catch weight so that he wouldn’t have to drain weight to make 147. As such, the fight didn’t take place. Mayweather, on the other hand, said he wasn’t looking to get any advantage over Cotto by having him weakened by a catch weight. Mayweather wanted Cotto comfortable at his own natural weight without a strength draining catch weight that would hurt him in their fight. You got to give credit for Mayweather by agreeing to fight Cotto at the full weight instead of looking to get a handicap.



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