Better Inside Fighter: Cotto or Mayweather?

[pbftxrs316]

Honestly this isn't a wipeout like some people think.

The better offensive inside fighter? Cotto, easily. His body attack is crushing as ****.

The better overall inside fighter? Hard question, because Floyd's shell allows him to block and slip a ton of inside punches, while still landing some.

I'm not entirely sure.

I am pretty sure that Floyd recognizes how good of a body attack Cotto has, so he probably won't be sitting on the inside to answer our question though.

wanna bet? i guarantee you floyd would dominate the inside against cotto, and cotto isn't the better offense inside fighter. have you seen floyd fight on the inside? be honest, have you? i mean, did you not see the fight with him vs corley, chavez, and justin jukko? he is halacious on the inside, and his timing kills cotto's, not even close.

[BennyST]

Hmmm, I would also agree that Mayweather is better on the inside than Cotto. Cotto is not actually that good an in-fighter. He is a mid range pressure fighter that needs room to actually work and keep the power in his punches, get to the body etc.

If you know Mayweathers fights, you'll know that most of his fights before WW were fought with him in the pocket. He would do a bit of boxing but the majority of his offensive/point scoring/effective aggression was on the inside ala Toney (I only use Toney as a case in point because he is more well known as an inside pocket fighter than Mayweather is, yet they are very similar fighters or do their best ie. most effective work on the inside).

I've always found it odd that most people consider Mayweather your typical classic 'Sugar' Ray type of boxer who will win nearly all his fights by staying away and using a long jab and speed to win fights. Mayweather rarely actually fights that way, even when he did move up to WW and fought big guys like Baldomir, it was still more pot shot type fighting than pure boxing.

I've always felt that only someone with either better pure boxing skills (Leonard) or a better actual inside game (Duran) would be able to beat Mayweather. He is better at pocket fighting than anyone I can think of today and probably better at boxing than most, but, his main game is still to fight more on the inside than on the outside. Cotto just doesn't have that range of skill to be able to beat Mayweather either with his 'boxing' or his mid-range pressure fighting.

The funny thing I find is, after seeing this thread in History about Cotto being better than Duran, I actually think Duran and Mayweather have more in common than Cotto and Duran. Mayweathers skills on the inside are to closer to a great inside fighter like Duran than Cotto's are. He really does have a better inside game because he utilises more skills while there. He is very hard to hit and has the type defense which leads to openings in the opponent which consequently get taken advantage of with short sharp effective inside punches and combo's. Cotto just doesn't really fight like that.

[rebmogul]

Who do you think is better at fighting on the inside?

mayweather will be much faster and much sharper and land more. cotto will land the much harder. look for the inside game to be very similar to chavez/meldrick taylor

[rebmogul]

Hmmm, I would also agree that Mayweather is better on the inside than Cotto. Cotto is not actually that good an in-fighter. He is a mid range pressure fighter that needs room to actually work and keep the power in his punches, get to the body etc.

If you know Mayweathers fights, you'll know that most of his fights before WW were fought with him in the pocket. He would do a bit of boxing but the majority of his offensive/point scoring/effective aggression was on the inside ala Toney (I only use Toney as a case in point because he is more well known as an inside pocket fighter than Mayweather is, yet they are very similar fighters or do their best ie. most effective work on the inside).

I've always found it odd that most people consider Mayweather your typical classic 'Sugar' Ray type of boxer who will win nearly all his fights by staying away and using a long jab and speed to win fights. Mayweather rarely actually fights that way, even when he did move up to WW and fought big guys like Baldomir, it was still more pot shot type fighting than pure boxing.

I've always felt that only someone with either better pure boxing skills (Leonard) or a better actual inside game (Duran) would be able to beat Mayweather. He is better at pocket fighting than anyone I can think of today and probably better at boxing than most, but, his main game is still to fight more on the inside than on the outside. Cotto just doesn't have that range of skill to be able to beat Mayweather either with his 'boxing' or his mid-range pressure fighting.

The funny thing I find is, after seeing this thread in History about Cotto being better than Duran, I actually think Duran and Mayweather have more in common than Cotto and Duran. Mayweathers skills on the inside are to closer to a great inside fighter like Duran than Cotto's are. He really does have a better inside game because he utilises more skills while there. He is very hard to hit and has the type defense which leads to openings in the opponent which consequently get taken advantage of with short sharp effective inside punches and combo's. Cotto just doesn't really fight like that.

i think your post is in large part correct and true but maybe one point you didn't bring up is that pbf tends to wear his opponents out for the first 3-5, maybe 6 rounds.

he does this by getting them to chase him around the ring and to the ropes (where is a defense is the best is probably the best i have ever seen), gets them to punch themselves out and when they are out of gas, sloppy and out of position (gatti 3 round, corrales 6 round, hernandez 6 round, oscar 6 round, hatton 6 round) he'll change and go straight to the inside game and picks them apart.

i think the problem he will have with cotto is he won't wear out and his pounched will eventually get to floyd alla chavez/taylor

[FantasticFloyd]

No doubt it's close, but just look at the way Floyd was able to adapt to inside fighting against one of the best inside fighters in Ricky Hatton. It's close, but I give the slight edge to Floyd.

[BennyST]

i think your post is in large part correct and true but maybe one point you didn't bring up is that pbf tends to wear his opponents out for the first 3-5, maybe 6 rounds.

he does this by getting them to chase him around the ring and to the ropes (where is a defense is the best is probably the best i have ever seen), gets them to punch themselves out and when they are out of gas, sloppy and out of position (gatti 3 round, corrales 6 round, hernandez 6 round, oscar 6 round, hatton 6 round) he'll change and go straight to the inside game and picks them apart.

i think the problem he will have with cotto is he won't wear out and his pounched will eventually get to floyd alla chavez/taylor

Yes, exactly man! He uses his boxing to advantage just like that but most of his actual effective punching etc comes when he is on the inside when someone is trying to **** away at him on the ropes etc. I couldn't be bothered going too much into detail about their fighting styles but just more that Mayweather is an inside fighter. Anyway, I agree, good points.

On the actual fight, I really don't know who would win. I would go with Mayweather to win a reasonably easy UD but Cotto is much larger, a bit smarter and can hit harder than Hatton. Though I still think Mayweather should win. Just has too much in his game for a guy like Cotto at this point. Could be a surprise though!!!

[BennyST]

No doubt it's close, but just look at the way Floyd was able to adapt to inside fighting against one of the best inside fighters in Ricky Hatton. It's close, but I give the slight edge to Floyd.

Hattons a pretty **** inside fighter actually. He has no defense on the inside and doesn't know how to tie up while shooting off his own punches at the same time. He has no countering effectiveness on the inside and has resorted to just holding until he pushes away and then punches. He also punches a lot on the way in, which was the big reason he got beat so easily by Mayweather.

One of the main problems I see with Hatton, and I'm surprised no one was able to capitalise on this more, was that he loves to throw the left hook on the way in and every time he does that he drops his right hand to his stomach. Every time! I guess Mayweather was the only guy to watch tapes on him and be able to use that to his advantage.

He doesn't really know how to get in effectively and then work when he is in. Considering his favourite fighter is Duran, he needs to go back and study him some more and get some tips on how to effectively work while tying up your opponent and being impossible to hit at the same time.

[Pugilistic™]

cotto is stronger, and is more active on the inside.

mayweather is more accurate, and better defensively on the inside.

[Fox McCloud]

wanna bet? i guarantee you floyd would dominate the inside against cotto, and cotto isn't the better offense inside fighter. have you seen floyd fight on the inside? be honest, have you? i mean, did you not see the fight with him vs corley, chavez, and justin jukko? he is halacious on the inside, and his timing kills cotto's, not even close.

I've seen every single Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight.

Cotto is the better inside offensive fighter, period.

[letsgobrady]

ever since floyd moved up to welter he doesn't dare fight on the inside.people say floyd is a better inside fighter because he beat hatton but hatton is a bum he has no defence he is always coming forward ,his punches are wide and he is a jr welter.cotto is a completely different fighter, a better fighter.