By James Slater: This Saturday, on Pay-Per-View in the U.S (it doesn’t look like we U.K fight fans will get to see the card, not live anyway!), Miguel Cotto will collide with the always-dangerous Ricardo Mayorga. There has been much talking, threatening and boasting in the lead-up to this fight (mostly coming from the Nicaraguan wild man), and both fighters are predicting a KO win in Las Vegas.
Mayorga began insisting weeks ago how he would KO Cotto inside four or five rounds, and he has now said he will either score a knockdown or he will open a cut on the Puerto Rican in the first two-rounds. There is no doubt, the 37-year-old will come out swinging, giving it his all on Saturday! But can he seriously be given anything more than a puncher’s chance?
Cotto, the younger man with less wear and tear on his mind and body, has Hall of Famer Emanuel Steward training him these days, and Steward told Ring Magazine’s web site that his charge will go back to the boxing style he used to such great effect in his younger days. Steward says that before he changed his style to that of a fighter who looked to out-strengthen his opponents, the light-middleweight titlist was a fine boxer – one who even reminded him of the great Sugar Ray Leonard.
“It wasn’t a case of teaching him anything new,” Steward said of his work with Cotto for the Mayorga fight. “He just got so involved in being physically strong, he got away from who he was. I’m not saying he’ll be running around, just using better footwork, much like the [Yuri] Foreman fight. In the Foreman fight, he broke him down with his footwork and a solid jab as much as anything.”
Cotto will have been out of action for nine months come Saturday’s rumble, and his possible ring-rust may affect his ability to box as well as Steward is anticipating (even though Mayorga has been far from active himself recently). Steward, in addition to Cotto’s back-to-boxing approach, expects to see a short, explosive fight.
“I think Mayorga will come in and crowd him, almost bully him,” the trainer of champions said. “That means he’ll have to open up a little bit. The fight will be explosive. I personally don’t see it going past over rounds based on the crispness of Cotto’s punches and his footwork.
“I know they will get into some great exchanges. I believe Mayorga’s inability to throw short, accurate punches means Miguel’s punches will connect sooner. That’s why I think it will be an early knockout.”
Both fighters have already begun thinking about who they would like to fight next, assuming they win. Ever the audacious type, Mayorga has even called out P-4-P king Manny Pacquiao; with Don King saying this fight will smash all Box Office records! Only in America.
As for Cotto, he told Ring he wants to “take the thorn out of my side.” Referring to the stoppage loss he suffered at the hands of the subsequently disgraced Antonio Margarito. Cotto says he will get revenge in a return.
“I’m a hundred-percent sure,” Cotto said when asked if he feels Margarito had something in his gloves when they fought, before adding “I have the correct team now to beat Margarito.”
Which man will be in a position to be able to move ahead into the fight they have in their sights? Mayorga does and always will have that puncher’s chance, but Cotto has to be Saturday’s pick to win. Cotto-Margarito II in the summer?