| 01 February 2012
As you've no doubt heard by now if you've been anywhere near a computer, smartphone or internet-enabled refrigerator, Floyd Mayweather has been granted a license to fight Miguel Cotto on May 5. Kind of like the Republican primaries, the frontrunner to face Money has shifted several times, but Cotto always appeared to have a good shot at either Mayweather or a rematch against Manny Pacquiao.
There will be plenty of time to break down Mayweather-Cotto over the next three months, of course, so I'm not going to go in depth on it right now. My gut tells me that while Cotto is certainly a warrior and will come prepared and in tremendous shape, I can't see him having much of a chance to pull off the upset.
I'm willing to keep an open mind, in the same way as other writers I admire. It just feels like we've been down this path before, trying to talk ourselves into the idea that someone poses a real threat to Floyd. Cotto will be fighting an uphill battle against Mayweather's hand speed and elusiveness like so many before him. Holding the fight at 154 pounds gives a glimmer of hope, but I'd expect Floyd to simply follow Pac-Man's example and just come in comfortably under the limit if he doesn't feel like carrying the extra weight. It shouldn't make that much of a difference.
As a longtime admirer of Cotto and the way he carries himself and goes about his business, I should add that I am happy for him that he is getting this fight. He's at the point of his career where he doesn't need to be fighting unless it's against the biggest names he can line up, and since he's already taken on Pacquiao, this is the biggest. He'll make a lot of well deserved money. And while I expect him to lose, if he retires with only losses to Pac-Man, Money and a possibly plaster-aided Antonio Margarito, well, that's not too shabby.
In a long-winded way, I suppose I'm grudgingly saying this is the best possible Mayweather fight that isn't against Pacquiao - and if Manny ends up in the ring with Timothy Bradley in June, that would be the most interesting non-Floyd opponent out there for him, too. That still doesn't mean it's a fantastic fight, and I wish we boxing fans didn't have to look for the silver lining so often. But hey, at least we're used to it by now.
