Mayweather: Miguel Cotto talk ended after Top Rank put him in with a stalking horse

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Floyd Mayweather: Miguel Cotto talk ended after Top Rank put him in with a stalking horse
Published: Monday, March 26, 2012, 6:00 AM
By David Mayo | dmayo@mlive.com

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather thought, in the middle of the last decade, that Miguel Cotto would be part of his fistic future. The boxing public can only hope it doesn't take as long for Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao to materialize.

On the week Mayweather fought Henry Bruseles, a veritable lifetime of boxing experiences ago, Cotto hovered around the media conferences in Miami, making sure everyone knew he was available for the eventual winner. That was January 2005. Mayweather had yet to headline his first pay-per-view event, and both he and Cotto fought under Top Rank's promotional banner. Both were young, undefeated stars.

Mayweather was trying to fight the late Arturo Gatti in his first pay-per-view main event that summer, which he ultimately did, but with some legal entanglements threatening that proposal, Top Rank openly was considering a Mayweather-Cotto backup plan.

That was just about the last anyone heard of Mayweather-Cotto.

Mayweather said he believes that Bruseles was the stalking horse for a potential Cotto fight – a left-hook specialist, and also trained by Cotto's uncle and then-trainer, Evangelista Cotto – and when the result was a lopsided eighth-round stoppage, during which Mayweather twice engaged HBO's ringside announcers with quick commentary on upcoming NFL playoff games while engaging in a live prizefight, Top Rank quietly ditched the plan.

Mayweather was trying to break way. Everyone knew it. Top Rank president Bob Arum, who would have loved to hang him with a loss on the way out the door, opted against risking a loss for Cotto instead.

“I think that was the tester,” Mayweather said. “Puerto Rican, identical style – if you go back and look at Henry Bruseles, identical style – comes from the Cotto camp, same trainer at that particular time, which was his uncle. And Bruseles, he tried. I gave him the opportunity. He tried but I was the better man.”

In the end, Arum stuck with the right guy. Not long after the Gatti win, Mayweather bought out his promotional contract. Cotto stayed with Top Rank until last year.
Once Cotto left, they pulled together the fight quickly.

“This fight could've happened a long time ago, when both fighters were with Top Rank at that particular time,” Mayweather said. “But I think Bob Arum saw that I wasn't any ordinary fighter. He saw that I was a sharp individual, had a sharp mind, and that eventually I was going to break off and become my own boss.”

Though Cotto clearly is a superior fighter to Bruseles, Mayweather took a purely clinical approach when asked just that question – in what would seem to be no debate whatsoever – much like a baseball purist who argues you can never play the what-if game because one seemingly circumstantial change prompts a chain reaction of altered pitch selections, pitch locations, defensive positioning, baserunner risks, and managerial decisions which render all speculation moot.

“We really can't say until he's tested,” Mayweather said. “You've got some fighters that you can knock out in two rounds, or one round. And that's not saying that just because (Victor) Ortiz got knocked out in four rounds (by Mayweather, last September), and Bruseles got knocked out in eight rounds – it all depends on how you make adjustments in the ring, as to how hard your night is going, basically. Because every night is not the same. In the Bruseles fight, I was doing a lot of counter-punching, a lot of sharp boxing. With Ortiz, I was pressing the attack.”

Mayweather, back when he thought the fight might be on his immediate horizon, dismissed Cotto as a one-handed fighter, a powerful left-hooker but little more.

In the years since, Cotto has built his reputation through several big wins, including last year avenging his questionable loss to Antonio Margarito, who was caught trying to fight with loaded handwraps a few months after knocking out Cotto in 2008.

Cotto's other loss, via 12th-round stoppage to Pacquiao in 2009, is rationalized away by Mayweather because it was contested at 145 pounds, three years after Cotto had moved into the 147-pound welterweight class.

“I think I've got a lot more experience, but he has a lot of experience in the sport now,” Mayweather said of Cotto's professional evolution. “He's solid. And I look at him as an undefeated fighter, because one guy he faced, he fought at a catch-weight, and another guy he faced, of course, got caught cheating. So I don't go into this fight looking at him as a guy with two losses.”

The fight would have been attractive six or seven years ago. Today, it's a blockbuster, the product of Mayweather building his pay-per-view brand, and Cotto staying viable long enough for the fight come back around.

“I always thought it was a fight that was going to happen,” Mayweather said. “He was with Top Rank, I was with Top Rank. I dominated at 130, moved to 140, fought at 147, I thought, eventually, the fight was going to happen. It didn't happen. I didn't pain none about it. But it's a great thing that he's got his promotional company up and going, I've got my promotional company up and going, and now that we can make the fight happen. I think it's a great thing for the sport of boxing.”

http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/inde...l_cotto_1.html

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Yes we all know Floyd already beat a prime Cotto when he fought Bruselles

[bojangles1987]

Mayweather viewing Cotto as undefeated is pure hilarity.

And I'm glad Cotto living in Puerto Rico isn't an obstacle anymore.

[jtiger777]

floyd would beat any version of cotto... cotto struggled in alot of his early fights, hes never been anything above good... too bad arum was involved

[HEZEKYHWH]

SCARY POST!!!!



YOU GOT ME PETRIFIED TO RESPOND TO YOU!!!!

[HEZEKYHWH]

SCARY POST!!!!



YOU GOT ME PETRIFIED TO RESPOND TO YOU!!!!

[turbotime]

Pretty cool insight. Pretty obvious Arum wanted nothing to do with a Mayweather/Cotto fight back then, especially after Cotto barely got by Moaley and Torres.

[Paclan]

So by mayweather's logic, the marquez fight doesnt count because it was at a catch weight and the ricky hatton fight doesnt count because he made him move up from 140.

[turbotime]

Originally Posted by Paclan

So by mayweather's logic, the marquez fight doesnt count because it was at a catch weight and the ricky hatton fight doesnt count because he made him move up from 140.

Yup and Pac's Bradley, Marquez and Cotto fights don't count either

[Paclan]

Oh and let's just discount nonito donaire's win over vic darchinyan because darchinyan already beat glenn donaire and they both have the same style the same trainer and grew up in the same boxing background.

beating glenn donaire is the same thing as beating nonito, just like bruselles is to cotto.