If Cotto Can Control The Pace...

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I'm one of the few believers that Cotto can actually pull off an upset against Floyd and I just wonder if he can control the pace against Floyd can he win?

The only two boxers he's ever lost to were tremendous pace setters and completely put Cotto out of his comfort zone and overwhelmed him with a terrific volume of punches. Cotto was so used to being the fighter in which HE set the pace and he could bully his opposition around the ring, when it happens the other way around I believe it's an awful lot more energy sapping for a fighter that isn't used to being on the receiving end of it.

Completely different fighter in Floyd, who is able to be pushed back and in a way bullied at times. Of course Floyd is without his suprises in the way he was so aggressive against a good sized Welterweight in SSM and a HUGE WW in Ortiz, however a few things I've noticed in Floyds career:


When he steps up in weight he seems to have some sort of mentality in which he fights on the back foot and is slightly easier to be bullied.

Against Jose Luis Castillo he had this problem and was walked back when he actually had a lot of opportunities to come forward and turn Castillo onto the ropes himself as he does in a lot of other fights.

This didn't happen at LWW, I must admit which is a slight flaw in my theory, HOWEVER, if we look at the opponents that he faced, Arturo Gatti was much too slow and a fighter that Floyd could bully with pure speed alone.

Against Judah at the beginning he was being pushed back a lot and caught with shots, must give Floyd credit here with the fact that he did decide to become the bully in this fight towards the middle stages and really put the pain in Judah, however must also say that pushing Judah back was his main weakness as he never really liked to be put out of his comfort zone which was his achilles heel, so he wasn't really the correct type of fighter to show this possible flaw in Floyd.

And of course the example you were all reading and knowing what was going to come was ODLH, the weight he is now fighting at, and agaisnt a bigger man that wanted to push him agaisnt the ropes and bully him did just so, not with quite enough method however. I remember when Roach was talking about the Pacqiaou Vs. ODLH fight, he was saying that he was shocked about ODLH's ring smarts, Roach said that ODLH actually didn't know what cutting the ring off was, and had to actually teach him ring cutting off techniques for the fight and other bullying tactics.

Ok, a slightly off the wall theory, but I genuinely believe that there's a good possibility when Floyd moves up in weight it's possible that he can get bullied.

Ok, so do you think it is possible for Cotto to control the pace of the fight and win the rounds whilst he is, and can we see him managing that for 7 rounds to nick the fight? I think it's a good possiblity.

I may be wrong but the master plan seems to be Cotto, Alvarez and then Martinez with a fight or two inbetween against a Kirkland or Williams type.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:I may be wrong but the master plan seems to be Cotto, Alvarez and then Martinez with a fight or two inbetween against a Kirkland or Williams type.

That's about 4 years worth of fights for Mayweather. Can't see a Martinez fight happening, it's just too much of a risk.

Snakeyman123 wrote:I agree it would be a great achievement - I am stating that some people would cite weight as a factor....

Just as a win for Floyd would have people citing Martinez's age as a factor

while i appreciate the established at the weight theory, i think the asterisk is always there when a perceived bigger guy beats a smaller guy. Picking up on the hagler duran fight mentioned earlier... it was duran who got the plaudits for giving marv a run for his money, Marv was criticised for the fight being close. Hagler got credit for hearns, due to the size and punching rep of tommy, i doubt he'd have got much credit for srl if he'd won.

Like pac, mayweather has gone through the weights and the perception is he is probably operating at the top end of his practical weight range. Martinez may have started at welter, but is a career light middle/middle and is clearly a bigger guy.

Floyd can beat up all the light middles he wants, especially if they are all guys who have moved up themselves, but if he were to fight and lose to martinez, Martinez would rightly get credit for beating a special fighter like mayweather but there'll be a caveat against the respective w/l columns as there always is, and not jus from the wums imo.

cant see the fight happening anyway

At 140 and 147, Mayweather couldn't knock out the likes of Corley, Judah & Baldomir. In fact, he was clocked by Corley and Judah put him down. He beat face-first Hatton who moved up from 140 but was Hatton that good to start with? I don't think so. He couldn't even get little man Marquez outta there. Whilst Cotto appears to be a different fighter to what he was back in 07/08, I think the current version of Cotto will present a challenge to Mayweather. We'll see how Mayweather handles a moving target from a bigger, stronger opponent. Cotto isn't a young fighter like Ortiz who has no idea to fight backwards. Cotto will move, use his jab and mix it up when he has to. Sure, Mayweather is the favourite on paper but Cotto is Mayweather's toughest opponent since the likes of De La Hoya & Castillo. SD either way.

I know Mayweather is economical and precise but look at Cotto-Margarito II: in rounds 3 & 4, Margarito threw 99 & 95 punches respectively. Through 9 rounds, Margarito had thrown bang on 700 punches. Against Mosley, Mayweather threw 477 punches through 12 rounds. It'll be a tough fight for Cotto but Mayweather's style won't be a big obstacle if he boxes uses movement and intelligent aggression.

Cotto landed over 50% of his power punches fighting on the back-foot against Margarito in their rematch whilst having to counter a high workrate from Margarito.

Styles make fights and I think Cotto has a chance in this fight. Too many writing him off.

sn14life wrote:At 140 and 147, Mayweather couldn't knock out the likes of Corley, Judah & Baldomir. In fact, he was clocked by Corley and Judah put him down. He beat face-first Hatton who moved up from 140 but was Hatton that good to start with? I don't think so. He couldn't even get little man Marquez outta there. Whilst Cotto appears to be a different fighter to what he was back in 07/08, I think the current version of Cotto will present a challenge to Mayweather. We'll see how Mayweather handles a moving target from a bigger, stronger opponent. Cotto isn't a young fighter like Ortiz who has no idea to fight backwards. Cotto will move, use his jab and mix it up when he has to. Sure, Mayweather is the favourite on paper but Cotto is Mayweather's toughest opponent since the likes of De La Hoya & Castillo. SD either way.

He could have got Marquez out of there from about Round 2, but stated afterwards it was down to his re-known brittle hands and of course the fact he just simply didnt want to.

Legend.

If it's a split decision either the judging is as bad as it was against De La Hoya or Mayweather gets very very old over night.

sn14life wrote:I know Mayweather is economical and precise but look at Cotto-Margarito II: in rounds 3 & 4, Margarito threw 99 & 95 punches respectively. Through 9 rounds, Margarito had thrown bang on 700 punches. Against Mosley, Mayweather threw 477 punches through 12 rounds. It'll be a tough fight for Cotto but Mayweather's style won't be a big obstacle if he boxes uses movement and intelligent aggression.

Cotto landed over 50% of his power punches fighting on the back-foot against Margarito in their rematch whilst having to counter a high workrate from Margarito.

Styles make fights and I think Cotto has a chance in this fight. Too many writing him off.

Are you joking? If there was one person on cotto's resume who is the complete opposite of mayweather stylistically it is margarito, and your using it to compare how the floyd-Miguel fight will go. None of mayweathers last 5 opponents have landed over 25% of there punches. Floyd is the best defensive fighter of the last 10 years and margarito is probably one of the worst. If cotto fights on the backfoot, mayweather will hammer him as he's faster and can counter walking forward. Cotto will have to be aggressive without being reckless, he will need to be smart, throw combo's and keep his hands up