Floyd Mayweather Edges Miguel Cotto, Canelo Wins
by Gautham Nagesh
Floyd Mayweather survived a tough challenge from Miguel Cotto with his unbeaten record intact on Saturday night, winning a unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mexican prodigy Saul “Canelo” Alvarez pummeled Shane Mosley for 12 rounds en route to a points win in the chief support.
Mayweather was the overwhelming favorite against Cotto, Ring Magazine’s top-rated fighter at 154 lbs. But Miguel showed the heart of a champion, repeatedly trapping Mayweather against the ropes and peppering him with shots on the inside. Floyd was bleeding from the nose and mouth early as a result of Cotto’s hard jab, which might have been the most effective punch of the fight. Had Cotto looked to use it a bit more regularly, he would have done better on the final scorecards.[[MORE]]
Regardless, the official results of 118-110 and 117-11 (twice) were patently unfair to the Puerto Rican, who had Floyd downright uncomfortable at time. We scored the fight 115-113 and had it even after ten rounds. Floyd earned the 11th as Cotto’s pace waned, then Mayweather hurt Cotto badly in the final round with a left uppercut from the outside. Ever cautious, Mayweather elected to dance the rest of the round rather than try to close the show. But we can’t criticize too much, as Floyd brought more than enough action to satisfy the fans on this night.
As expected, Floyd’s right hand was there for the taking most of the fight. But Cotto took the punch well and kept coming on the inside, forcing Mayweather to lean back and eat some lead left hands. Mayweather ultimately won thanks to his defense, which enabled him to lean on the ropes at times while avoiding the worst of Cotto’s flurries. Miguel gets an “A” for effort, but very few of his power shots landed cleanly. Mayweather was the more effective fighter throughout, though we expected him to show more power at junior middleweight.
The performance does little for Mayweather and may swing public opinion back toward Manny Pacquiao, who dominated Cotto at a lower weight. Then again, perhaps Miguel just takes punches better at 154. Regardless, this was the least impressive win for Mayweather since the Jose Luis Castillo fights. Whether that’s due to his advancing age or Cotto’s effort is an open question. We think it’s probably a bit of both. Still, no opponent aside from Pacquiao is likely to trouble Floyd, unless he’s willing to fight middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. That would be a great fight, but also unusually brave for the Money Team.
Canelo punished Mosley in a co-feature that had us cringing shortly after the opening bell. Sugar Shane retained his claim of never having been stopped, but at what cost? Mosley looked like a washed-up sparring partner for Alvarez, brought in to fine-tune the younger man’s body attack. Canelo worked Shane up and down, catching him repeatedly with shots that would have crumpled lesser men. Mosley’s chin remains one of the fight game’s best, but that is the last elite skill he has left.
Shane looked awkward and robotic against Canelo; even the punches that landed failed to trouble the young Mexican. Canelo couldn’t keep up the pressure steadily, but when he chose to fight, he landed. And when he landed, it hurt Shane. We can only hope this is Mosley’s last time in the ring. Doubtless, the effects of this beating will be felt further down the line.
Mayweather Promotions welterweight prospect Jessie Vargas out-boxed Steve Forbes to earn a ten-round decision on the undercard. Vargas was a little too long and too young for Forbes, who wasn’t able to get close enough to make it a brawl. Vargas has promise and smartly kept the fight on the outside, but he remains a long ways from the top. Still, he showed good patience against the slick and durable Forbes.
Puerto Rican veteran Carlos Quintana stopped St. Louis native Deandre Latimore in the sixth round to score a mild upset in the televised opener. Quintana cut Latimore early and began taking control of the fight with his straight left hand. He hurt Latimore in both the 5th and the 6th, finally ending the fight with a barrage of left hands.
Golden Boy lightweight prospect Omar Figueroa of Texas stopped Robbie Cannon with a vicious left hook in the second round on the live Web stream of the undercard. Figueroa is a staff favorite; he floored Cannon with a body shot in the first and made it official with a flush left hook to the chin in the second round.