Mayweather vs. Cotto: Why Early Rounds Are Crucial for Miguel to Upset

Floyd Mayweather enters his fight with Miguel Cotto on Saturday night as a heavy favorite thanks largely to his unblemished record, but he is not infallible. In fact, there are some glaring weaknesses Cotto can exploit to get the best of "Money" in Las Vegas. 

The two biggest strengths in Mayweather's game are his speed and defense. He can attack fighters in the blink of an eye because he is able to shift his weight and change his stance like no one else in the sport. 

Mayweather wants his opponents to try and attack him early so they punch themselves out and have nothing left for the later rounds. It is a unique strategy that only a select few fighters in the history of the sport have been able to pull off with the same level of success that Mayweather has. 

Cotto is the exact opposite of Mayweather. He is a heavy hitter who wants to come out right at the bell swinging for the fences. That has worked well for "Junito," as he enters this fight with a 37-2 career record with 30 knockouts under his belt. 

Since it is difficult to imagine a scenario where Cotto changes up his strategy, especially when you consider that Mayweather is moving up to Cotto's weight class as opposed to the other way around, the first four rounds of this fight are going to tell us all we need to know. 

Since he is one of the best and most powerful punchers in the sport, Cotto needs to come out and set the tone right away. He needs to show Mayweather that everything he has done in the past means nothing on Saturday night. 

The biggest key will be for Cotto to stun Mayweather, ideally in Round 1. Mayweather's style makes it so that he doesn't have to get hit. He has never really been close to losing a fight in his career, so you have to put him in a position he has yet to deal with. 

Saying what Cotto should do is a lot easier than actually being able to do it in the fight, we know that. But if Cotto is able to catch Mayweather trying to attack early and land a big blow in the opening rounds of the fight, he will score the biggest upset boxing has seen in a long time. 

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