It's styles. Mayorga is always going to be a tough fight for Cotto. In fact prime for prime he might beat him. Cotto has trouble with tough chinned / aggressive fighters.
Shane Mosley had trouble with him too before he stopped him. And Mayorga is an awkward opponent, so no one is gonna look good fighting him, even if you dominate him.
Trinidad also looked good against him and Mayorga was younger for that one. But look what happened to Trinidad in his next fight with Winky.
I understand what you are saying. However, in that fight DLH literally wanted to kill Mayorga for all his taunting and actually went for the kill. Also, to DLH's credit, he has an iron chin which can with stand mayorga's crazy punches. Cotto's gameplan was simply to outbox Mayorga and not take any chances. With manny in his corner, he wasnt going to slug it out. i'm not saying that he would have or could have taken him out earlier, similar to DLH. I'm just saying that you cant assume b/c he went 12 with mayorga, it's better or worse than what DLH did to mayorga. they both ended with awesome KO's
I'm saying that it's silly to say Hoya was shell of himself against Mayweather when he looked so good in his prior fight against Mayorga, and when he performed relatively well against Mayweather.
DLH in the Cotto fight was FADED DLH in the Pacquaio fight was SHOT Don't see much argument with that?
If DLH fought Cotto then he'd hold a clear size advantage, and posess the superior jab IMO which would allow him offensive initiative. I don't think that version of Oscar stops Cotto, (I wouldn't rule out a flash knockdown off the left hook as Cotto goes slightly off balance.) but I think DLH would of taken a 116 - 112 type thing.
Over the hill, faded, on his way to shot, part-time fighter DLH, or w/e you want to call him performed better against Floyd than many other fighters. He won 3 rounds, 2 being very clear. Some people had him winning 4. He gave Mayweather his 2nd or 3rd hardest fight even at his declined stage. Too good for Cotto(e). Diff class of fighter