Is this a prime Cotto?

In other words, if he loses to Pac then yes Margarito beat the prime out of him and he's no longer in his prime. But if he wins, he's still in his prime. That's what you're saying right?

 

Pac fans want everybody to say he's 100% the best he can be. We get that.

But if Manny was two fights removed from an extremely brutal beatdown, and one fight removed from a hard fought SD that saw him cut badly and hammered by a ton of hard power shots, would you immediately say he's still in perfect condition?

 

Size is definitely a factor here. Pac will be at least 10 lbs lighter than Cotto so that will definitely have a role should Cotto win. But size isn't everything, Hatton was heavier than Pac in their fight be Hatton wasn't able to capitalize on it. If Cotto wins, it will be because he has the skill to fully utilize his size advantage. So full props to him for finally being able to stop the Pac express. And yes I'm pretty sure Cotto will try to use his size to beat Pac.

I won't however, blame Pac's training camp. Personally I think HBO is trying to make it worse than it really is. Roach himself said it, win or lose, they won't blame the events in Baguio. I agree.

 

I honestly don't think the Clottey fight took anything away from him. It was a tough fight for sure and he did take a ton of hard power shots. But he took a ton of hard power shots too from Torres, does that mean he wasn't 100% in the fights after the Torres fight?

Now the Margarito fight I personally believe took away something from him mentally. Enough for me to say that I think Cotto is prime physically but not mentally. But I'm saying it now. Unlike some other people who sit on the fence and come the day after the fight will start harping that Cotto was way past it as if they knew all along. Even worse, there are probably some haters who are hoping that Cotto can finally end Pac's "hype train" and if Cotto fails, will resort to calling Cotto shot instead of giving Pac props.

Both fighters deserve full props if they win. I just irritates me that some people would just refuse to do so and would rather put and asterisk beside that W with a footnote saying "not in his prime" as if all fights are meaningless unless both fighters are at their absolute peak.

 

Well said.

I believe a Pacquiao win, regardless of how Cotto looks, is significant. If we use the Mosley fight as Cotto's peak, I think his reflexes and punch resistance are virtually intact, enough that we can certainly call them "prime". His foot speed has always been a weak point, but in his comeback I haven't seen quite the mobility that he had against Shane. Cuts are also becoming an issue.

So while I won't argue with anyone saying Manny beat a prime Cotto, I also think it's very hard to say that he's the exact same fighter he was before Margarito. Boxing is a tricky sport, it's man vs. man, and we really won't know exactly what Cotto has until they get in the ring. It's not "hating" on Manny to say this, it's just the way it is.

 

Whether Cotto is in his prime or not, he's not that far enough out of it to discredit Manny if he wins.

 

My last post in about 1/100th the words. Thank you.

 

Just earnin my keep pal

Even if you believe Cotto "isn't the same" after the Margarito fight, he's still done enough out of it to prove that he's a beast and a tough fight for Manny.

 

How does Cotto loseing one fight to a fighter who was caught cheating make hiim shot?

The post on here have realy gone down hill lately.