Cotto's redemption tour continues vs Mayweather

MANILA, Philippines - Everyone thought Miguel Cotto’s career was over after he lost to Antonio Margarito. It’s rather peculiar that a fighter with one loss on his tab is given up for dead but back in 2009, Cotto’s career really looked like it was over.

In typical Boricua fashion, Cotto fought on. He scratched and clawed his way back into the world rankings with underwhelming yet clear victories over Michael Jennings and Joshua Clottey. Then he was given the biggest shot of his life. He was selected to face Manny Pacquiao, the world’s best fighter. But Cotto fell short again. He was dropped twice in the early rounds and finished off in the 12th round.

After yet another devastating loss, Cotto went up to the welterweight division. He won the WBA super welterweight title over an injured Yuri Foreman, knocked out Ricardo Mayorga, and avenged his loss against Margarito. After three wins, Cotto was back in the limelight. Now, he will be given another shot to grab elusive career-defining victory this time against Floyd Mayweather.

After Mayweather and Pacquiao again failed to agree to the terms to a fight, Cotto was mentioned by both camps as a possible opponent. Pacquiao’s camp asked for Cotto to cut weight and fight in the weltherweight division again. Mayweather’s camp on the other had wanted a fight at 154, a weight where Cotto is very comfortable.

The decision to fight Mayweather was relatively easy for Cotto’s camp. He’ll earn around the same amount of money and he won’t need to spend a lot of effort cutting weight. Cotto has also proven that he can handle fast fighters. He had no problem defeating Zab Judah and Shane Mosley. However, Mayweather is a much better fighter than Cotto’s past victims. He combines tremendous speed with the best defense in boxing today.

At 154, Cotto needs to hurt Mayweather to get a fighting chance. He needs to stay focused and persevere even though Mayweather eludes his attacks in the early going.

This is it for Cotto. If he loses to Mayweather, he’ll never get another payday like this again but with his newfound partnership with Cuban trainer Perdo Diaz expect Cotto to give the fight of his life against Mayweather.

Solar Sports will air this much awaited super welterweight showdown on May 6.

Catch the action live on Solar Sports-Ch. 80 on Sky Cable, Global Destiny on Ch. 35, Cignal on Ch. 45, and Cablelink on Ch. 31.