What really happened in the Floyd vs Cotto fight?
Last night Floyd Mayweather jr and Miguel Cotto squared off in the main event of what turned out to be a great PPV show. The fight had all the anticipation it needed to make everyone slightly hold their breath when the first bell rung and both Floyd and Cotto came out of their corners. The fight started with Floyd displaying his hand speed and great defense, while Miguel threw punches that he just could not land. Floyd even put his back to the ropes and let Cotto get close, which is what many said Cotto had to do to have a chance at winning the fight. Once inside, Cotto was still unable to land shots while Floyd out worked him in his own environment. After about round 3 or 4, Floyd is still occasionally putting his back to the rope purposefully but Cotto is starting to land shots now. My question is WHY?
Why would Floyd continuously put his back on the ropes when this is the only real time Cotto did good work because as the rounds went on Cotto even bloodied Floyd’s nose. The commentators were saying that Floyd came out and wanted to show Cotto he could beat him at his own game, which is understandable and he did for the first 2 or 3 rounds, but why continue? He proved he could beat him inside a phone booth, but why not take him in the middle of the ring after that and pick him apart like he was doing every time they went there? You are probably thinking “What is he getting at?” I asked myself what really happened, because I think it could have been more than that!
There are two different scenarios in my head that happened in this fight after I watched it for the second time. I first asked myself was Floyd tired in the later rounds. Didn’t the back to the ropes for about a minute and a half and then push to the middle of the ring and win the round kind of remind you of Roy Jones Jr vs Antonio Tarver 1? During the later rounds, in spots, Floyd didn’t seem to punch that fast, but that don’t really raise an alarm by itself, but when you add in his back to the ropes!?! Floyd is one of the hardest working boxers out there and him getting tired is unheard of, so I will probably get a lot of scrutiny on this, but I analyze what I see and report it.
I sat back and thought a little deeper into it because it could be that he simply put his back to the ropes to fight Cotto in his own element and then another thought popped in my head: What if Floyd wanted to make sure this was a great fight? Hear me out!
There is no way Cotto would have survived in the middle of the ring, which was evident every time they took it there, so if Floyd was just singling in on taking this man out, why didn’t he? Why didn’t he sit back and pick him apart like he did so many warriors like Shane Mosley and Arturo Gatti? Isn’t it better for him to keep pumping up Cotto like he has been by calling him the best, which is why he picked him, and saying he’s still undefeated in his eyes? If he went in and just destroyed Cotto, everyone would have started screaming that they knew Cotto was over the hill and that would have took away from Floyd. Floyd is a business man and he hypes up fights, why is it hard to believe that he would hype it up while in the ring as well?
I’m just speculating on what I saw, but when it’s all said and done, the fight was great and I enjoyed every bit of it. I don’t know if this question will ever be answered, but right now Cotto looked like a warrior in there and I’m sure he will land another big fight because of it………You think he might work with Mayweather Promotions on his next fight? That would make a lot of sense why……Ok I’m done.
