This is 1 of those special weekends in boxing, not just because you have 2 great fighters, not just because the mega-fight that people talk too much about looms in the background, but because this is 1 of those boxing events that is just that, an event. This is not a normal PPV. This is 1 of those fights where the casual fans come out to see “the big dogs” flex their muscles.
This weekend, in the bright lights of Las Vegas, the undefeated, and arguably best pound for pound fighter in the world, Floyd “Money” Mayweather (42-0 with 26 KOs) squares off probably his toughest challenger to date, against Miguel “Junito” Cotto (39-2 with 30 KOs). There are 3 reasons I think Mayweather will find a way to defeat Cotto.
First, for anyone that has seen the fights that Cotto had against Tony Margarito (1st fight), the fight against Manny Pacquiao, and the fight against Yuri Forman, Cotto goes through periods in each fight where he wears down. Against Margarito, whether he cheated or not, Cotto wore down in that fight. He caught Margarito with numerous power shots. Maybe he punched himself out, but the point is he did something I never thought he would ever do, he went in the corner and took a knee.
Against Manny Pacquiao, Cotto came out looking good; he even was winning the fight, until he went down. After the knockdown, Cotto was a different fighter; he didn’t let his hands go as much as he did early. He seemed tentative and just seemed like he just tried to survive the rest of the fight.
Now with most boxers, when you hit the canvas, your mentality changes, but this was a very visibly different Cotto and he was not the same. After taking shot after shot from Pacquiao the rest of the fight, the referee finally stopped it in the 12th and final round.
Against Yuri Foreman, Cotto dominated most of the fight. However, we all know that in the middle of that fight Foreman tore his ACL in the 7th round on a slip. Yet, you can call it compassion, you can say he was taking a break, you can say he took it easy knowing he had the win, but the 8th rd, Foreman came out (after the towel throwing incident) and actually looked good the rest of that rd after refusing to quit. Then in rd 9, he just couldn’t continue and the fight was stopped after Foreman went down again.
My point of these previous 3 opponents is Floyd Mayweather is one of the most well conditioned athletes in boxing. When he fights, it’s almost as if he can go 15-20 rounds in every fight. If you have seen any of his training sessions, you can see how he can easily do hardcore training, after sparring, and not even look tired at the end of it. So the reason #1 that Mayweather wins the fight, is conditioning, when Cotto either wears down or takes a break, I’m guessing around 9 or 10, Mayweather will probably use that time to attack and actually try to finish the fight.
The 2nd reason I think Mayweather wins against Cotto is because the best way to beat Mayweather is attack the body. The saying is, “Kill the body, the head will fall”, and we all know that Cotto can go hard to the body. However, I’ve watched Cotto’s fights very closely since the 1st Margarito fight and he’s gotten way too much into attacking the head. The 1st Margarito fight, he pounded his head, looked like scenes from Rocky, but Margarito never budged.
Against Pacquiao, he hit him well in the 1st 2 rounds, then after the knockdown, he didn’t throw many combinations. He took 1 or 2 head shots and covered up.
The 2nd fight against Margarito, he won because he was faster and attacked the eye. However, once again, he did not go to the body as much as he should have, or will need to against Mayweather. So reason #2, Cotto is not the same type of fighter that he used to be, the same type that can beat Floyd, especially with Mayweather’s head movement. Attacking the head to make the fans happy by trying to be the 1st person to make Mayweather taste the canvas will not work.
The 3rd and final reason that Mayweather will win is definitely the dirtiest part of boxing right now, the judges. Anyone that watched the Rios-Abril fight knows what I am talking about. In Las Vegas, there is no chance that Cotto will win a decision. Everyone, mostly the promoters and judges, knows what could be lost for boxing if Cotto was to win a decision. So reason #3, I do not care if Cotto wins every round on my card, if it goes to a decision, unfortunately for true boxing fans, I will be expecting to hear, “And the winner by split decision, and STILL the undefeated, undisputed, WBA Super Light Middleweight Champion of the WOOORLD, Floyd “Moneeeeey” Maaaaaayweather”.
For why Miguel Cotto wins, click here: http://thaboxingvoice.cogito24.comprofiles/blogs/shock-value-miguel-cotto-b…
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