Just want to see your thoughts on this.... What do you think would be the determining factor in their fight...Cotto's Power, relentless pressure? Mosley's overall skill? etc....
Simply this..Mosely is durable enough to endure Cottos wrath, skillfull enough to counter solidly, and experienced enough to get a lead and maintain it.
I honestly think a huge factor is actually Shanes power. He boasts very good power in his right hand and left hook. Many of his punches sort of loop over top, his right cross is pretty brutal.. I just went ahead and watched a mosely highlight reel and was reminded that his resume is packed with knockouts, and he has cumulative power himself. This coupled with his will to exchange and endurance is such a huge test against anyone without some form of defending against it.. Forrest did it with range, Wright did it with an extremely solid defense and accurate punching, great jab.. I'm just not sure there are many guys out there that can win by trading with Mosely considering his considerable power, accuracy, odd angles and will.. I know all about Cotto's body attack, I'm such a huge fan of it.. But.. Does Cotto have the beard to not only take Mosely's shots, but immediately return fire? I've seen him take some punches and he doesn't exactly walk through everything the way Chaves used to.. He's been rocked before and gone into survival mode.. Those are situations where Mosely is extremely dangerous, and that is a moment I'm comming to realize is probably going to happen... I just don't think Mosely is the type of guy that will buckle from a huge body shot and start running, allowing his opponent to impose their will.. When Mosely fought Forrest and Wright, he was beaten badly, but I don't remember him ever giving up on himself during those fights.. He continuously made the same mistakes, but picked spots and tried to land hard.. Mosely's will and power are two things I feel Cotto needs to answer, as his defense is his punishment, which cant always protect a fighter like having a huge reach advantage, or superior defense can.. It does in most cases, but against fighters that always come back to return, it doesn't. His style requires an extremely solid chin, I'm not 100% sold he has one.
In few words and short to the point, Boxing I.Q. (Intelligence) and the way it reflects as much on punch timing, flashy counter-punching, exploring angles, slippin, turnin and sliddin, breakin the action and steppin up, controling the tempo and the pace of the fight. That is why boxing is called the sweet science, otherwise we could well have saloon duels with the winner going into the sunset and the loser to the morgue...
Well personally I see a really close war. With Mosely edging it being slightly more accurate. The factor for me is that will Mosely be on Cotto to really try and stop him. I think with Mosely's handspeed and accuracy he can stop Cotto if he has a good game plan. I mean Judah had a lot of success against Cotto at times so to did Corley and we all know what happened when Torres waded in with his shots. So for me its a war that Cotto is well in until he gets put down but it goes to the scorecards and Mosely edges it.
I have never seen Mosley pressured like Cotto will pressure him, especially to the body. If Mosley stands in with Cotto and Cotto can endure the early unslaught to the head from Mosley then it should be Cotto's fight. When Mosley was in trouble with Forrest it was from headshots, , Winky is all about powder puff hits and as mentioned elsewhere defense, De Lay Hoya wasn't going to his body much either and fought mostly on the outside none of these guys went to the body much. Cotto will go to the head and the body. Cotto is not a one shot knock out artist, he is all about accumulation of damage and that is why the people he beats are generally disfigured when they exit the ring. People speak correctly about Mosley having a great chin, that isn't in question, but does he have the mid-section to take the unrelenting attack that is inevitebly coming on Saturday night?
I think otherwise, Cotto cannot work on Shane's body and mid-section if he doesn't step in first and in order to do that, he gat to be first with the lead or to break Shane's lead if he wants to move inside, he can't simply jump right in! If Cotto is able to go to the body, I still believe that Shane can endure it cause Forrest shots in that 10th round were not exactly on the solar plexus, liver or something ( check the replay, one was clearly on the hip) and still Shane held on ( screamin or nor screamin) - what I would say is that Cotto folllows very well upstairs, like Joe Frazier used to say "first to the body, the head will follow", Cotto has massive tree trunk arms and the body to snap those wild left hooks upstairs quite fast like against Malignaggi when Paulie was out-punchin him with light but fast, accurate one-twos in the second and plenty of other rounds... Shane gotta deliver first or else counter shoot but never open up upstairs so that Miguel can counter in between with big left hooks... If he controls the distance, circles to his left ( like Bernard against Tito), never lets Miguel put his left foot in between his feet, Cotto never gets in position to bomb to the body or to the head and sit well on those punches.
The factor is chin. Mosley has a good one - Cotto's is shaky. The other factor being fouling. I'd bet a kidney that Cotto goes low at LEAST once during this fight.
in my opinion many say that mosley speed is his biggest advantage... i will greatly disagree, i know mosley once had great body shots once in him in his younger days and he could bring that back on sat.... mentally i seen him very strong but i do remember when he lost focus on his fight against forrest... he totally lost it, you saw it in his face... this could be a factor, i know for sure if this fight goes on to decision its going to be controversial, esp. if mosley pulls his smart moves at the end of the rounds were he will try to steal the rounds by throwing shots that the judge will decide if they were really effective or just for stats... either way i like both fighters but i will be choosing cotto on this one... its his turn to shine...
No, I didn't say that. I said the one guy that will be able to prove himself more intelligent, and still strong enough and resilient, will beat the other man. No brawling, sledge-hammering or slamming will be a factor. Now, let's see who gets who or should I say who schools who? One sunset away from the answer for all questions...
