By Freddy Fresco
Two of my favorite active fighters in boxing are Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, and me being Puerto Rican, I have to get behind my countryman, but not just because he is Puerto Rican like me but because he is one of the classiest boxers today.
I also have this funny feeling that Miguel Cotto will pull off the upset against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and win the fight by outworking Floyd Mayweather with a vicious body attack and applying the left jab to the nose of Floyd, straight punches are Floyd’s weakness. When Floyd is in that shell defense, Oscar De La Hoya showed us that if you have a good sharp jab you can land it on Floyd when he is in that shell defense mode.
If the judges are fair, and Cotto does enough to win, I would expect them to do the right thing and give the win to Cotto if he really outworks and out lands Mayweather. Part of my decision to go with Cotto even though I thought he had no real shot at first is because of his new found confidence and his Cuban trainer Pedro Diaz. Cotto was able to close the demon that haunted him for years, when he first lost at the hands of the cheater with the loaded gloves Antonio Margarito, in his rematch with Margarito, Cotto was jabbing on the backfoot, hitting to the body, and turning Margarito and he wasn’t gassing at all. I could see Cotto using the same style versus Mayweather, and Floyd’s punching power isn’t that great at 154-pounds especially with the 10oz gloves they are required to use.
A part of me feels nervous because if Cotto makes it through 12-rounds and clearly outworks Mayweather, the judges could give Mayweather the gift decision again like they did when he fought Jose Luis Castillo the first time around. I’m going with my gut and picking Miguel Cotto to retain his WBA junior middleweight title by split decision over Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a closely fought bout.
