Mayweather vs Cotto: Manny Pacquiao Should Be Encouraged by Cotto's Performance

After Miguel Cotto held his own for most of Saturday's fight against Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao should be very encouraged.

Although Mayweather eventually won by unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 117-111), Cotto wasn't exactly overwhelmed. He was able to bloody Mayweather's nose throughout the fight, and although his knees got wobbly a few times, Cotto never fell to the canvas.

So despite some of their past objections to a potential superfight with Mayweather, Pacquiao's camp should be more willing than ever to get the details drawn up.

Mayweather had some vintage Money moments on Saturday, but he wasn't nearly as dominant as usual.

After landing 46 percent of his punches in his previous nine fights, Mayweather connected on just 179 of 687 (26 percent) of his strikes against Cotto. He also landed just 17 percent (51 of 305) of his trademark jabs.

Although Pacquiao has more of a brawling style than Cotto, I'm not sure Mayweather's numbers would be much better against the Filipino phenom. His age showed on a few occasions, and even though he's still lightning quick, he looked much more human than usual.

Given Mayweather's slight decline, Pacquiao should jump all over the opportunity to finally make this fight happen. Of course, there's a few obstacles still in the way.

Pacquiao has a fight with undefeated Timothy Bradley on June 9, and Mayweather's got that whole jail stint thing coming up. But if Pacquiao mows down Bradley and Mayweather still wants to fight after his incarceration, Pac-Man should do whatever it takes to schedule the bout.