Mayweather vs. Cotto Round by Round: Money May Takes Control in Round 4

Perhaps it was part of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s plan. Perhaps he wanted to give Miguel Cotto some infinitesimal semblance of hope during the first three rounds, only to toy with Junito in the fourth like a snot-nosed kid teasing pedestrians with a dollar on a string.

Whatever Money May's intentions, he came out firing in Round 4 with a vintage performance to seize control at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Cotto did his best to press the issue, coming after Floyd with fists of fury to force his opponent to make a move.

Too bad those moves were so quick, so decisive, so cynically strategic that Cotto looked almost helpless to defend himself. Which isn't surprising so much as jarring, considering that Cotto is the bigger, stronger man in the fight. 

The difference for Mayweather, as expected, was in his speed. When Cotto came with an uppercut, Mayweather answered with one of his own, and added a clean right hand for good measure. When Junito tried to clear space for himself, Money May came at him with a right hand to the ear, one that Cotto couldn't quite block cleanly.

When Cotto crowded Mayweather on the ropes and cracked him with a solid left, Mayweather ducked out, countered and slipped back into the center of the ring.

For every one of Cotto's action, Mayweather had a better-than-equal-but-still-opposite reaction, as if taking shots at the other man in the ring and Sir Isaac Newton in one fell swoop.

That's not to say that Cotto was done for after just four rounds. Rather, Mayweather's performance in those three minutes made it clear that Cotto would have to land more than a few clean shots against the ever-elusive Mayweather to have any shot at taking this fight, on the cards or otherwise.

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