Cotto will have to get to Mayweather early to win

By Dan Ambrose: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) won’t have much time to try and figure out unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) on May 5th in their Las Vegas based fight, as Mayweather Jr. will do a clinic on Cotto is he’s not done anything magical by that point in the fight. Mayweather Jr. has been warming up kind of slowly lately, perhaps due to his increasing age now that’s in his mid-30s.

Mayweather is like an old V-8 with a lot of miles on it. It takes him a while to get warmed up, but once he’s at maximum temperature, he’s going to tear up some road. In this case the road is going to be the 31-year-old Cotto’s face with all the scar tissue that he’s got around his eyes. Mayweather will have be able to take advantage of Cotto’s tendency to cut by pouring it on once he’s got Cotto bleeding badly. This is why it’s important for Cotto to study the recent fights of Mayweather and try to come up with a plan in jumping him early and going all out.

On the surface, it may not seem like such a great plan but it’s the best that Cotto can likely come up with. He’s not going to outbox Mayweather that’s for sure, and the longer the fight goes the more Mayweather Jr. will dominate Cotto. He’s got too much speed, accuracy and defensive skills for Cotto to be able to hang around and get to him in the later rounds. Its all or nothing early in the fight or else Cotto will take a major beating.

Cotto has the power to end things early if he can hurt Mayweather, but he’s going to need to really take the fight to him. Cotto can’t waste valuable time trying to beat Mayweather by jabbing him in the early rounds. He’s better off going for broke and making things messy for Mayweather. He’s got a fighter in front of him in Mayweather who really hasn’t fought much and hasn’t had his stamina tested in the fights he’s had in the past few years. Cotto has to up the pace and see if he can get to Mayweather early to hurt him or tire him out for the later rounds.