My thoughts on how Cotto can use the tools at his disposal to beat Mayweather

Cotto was at his absolute worst under Santiago. Guard too high, elbows too wide, head off balance to the point it was past the lead foot, punches wide, and never got lead foot position.

Cotto had a car accident at the time he was competing at 140, and the shoulder got progressively worse. Steward helped him use it more frequently against Foreman (an undefeated, rangy, mobile opponent who Cotto was favored to lose), and following up post-surgery, it has looked even better. Snapping iron-chinned Margarito's head back with 1-2's is impressive. A strong right hand is a strong right hand, whether it's hitting an ATG square on the chin, or an old heavy bag.

I'm speaking facts based on a timeline and general knowledge base you seem to be unfamiliar with, and you're just hatin with little rhyme or reason. You can leave the thread now :hi:

 

You wanna see him flustered, huh? Floyd looking out of his comfort zone always makes the air of competition thicker and more exciting.

Do you need a list of examples where a fighter jabbing with the jabber was successful?

Cotto jabs to the head much more consistently than Floyd (who prefers the body), and steps in behind it to close the range. Mosley (who still had a competent jab at the time) and Foreman were both taller, and Shane was longer. Floyd hardly ever looked good in the Oscar fight; his movement and offense looked limited, despite a clear win.

 

Foreman's knee was injured when he was much younger, and had fought fine with it up until that fight, where Cotto's pressure made him put forth more effort than he'd needed to in moving and re-injured himself during the fight.

 

Foreman landed a good 1 or 2 in the fourth round I believe, but hardly "plenty." Mayorga is an awkward style to deal with, but he did land a good amount of over-hand rights rushing forward in the mid-rounds. Margarito was throwing some chopping overhand rights from above in their last fight, but Cotto was pivoting to the outside of them and catching them on his forearm much better than I'd ever seen him do.

I wouldn't be surprised if Floyd landed a high amount of straight rights on Cotto's face since he's incredibly accurate with it, but the trick is not to give him the angle, space, incentive, or comfort in doing so too often.

Oscar's jab did more for him than Floyd's for himself in that fight, plain as day.

 

I think he was on ESB's V-Bookie, but most betting sites I just looked at show Cotto was the favorite.

I fail to see what you're getting at in your tangential narrow-minded attack on Cotto, so I'm not going to waste anymore time responding to your irrelevant posts. Make your own thread with your own analysis about how Cotto has 0 chance if you feel that strongly about it, but I'm trying to open a space for knowledgeable technical discussion here, not a constant nut-hugging contest fanboys like you seem so accustomed to.

 

I don't see Cotto having the same success with the jab as Oscar did; Oscar threw it at range, whereas Cotto steps into it and covers a large amount of ground in doing so, and should use it as a key to open the rest of his offense up in the early-mid rounds.

Cotto's slowness is overrated, I feel, especially after seeing the combinations to the head and body he threw at Antonio. The whole second half of my post was that Cotto shouldn't stand in front of Floyd when Floyd tries to stand in front of him, and should take away the angle laterally and force Floyd into over-committing. Otherwise, Floyd will carve him up, like you say.