Mayweather vs. Cotto: Comparing Floyd and Manny's Performance Using CompuBox

On May 5th, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KOs) put his undefeated record on the line when he battled against Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs) for his WBA and the vacant WBC diamond junior middleweight belt.

Mayweather put on a fantastic performance against Cotto by evading Cotto's pressure and attacking with pinpoint accuracy when he saw an opening. Cotto was no slouch though as he roughed Mayweather up with his jab and combinations on the ropes.

Cotto would fall short though as Mayweather clearly won the fight. 

With that out of the way, the comparisons between how Mayweather did against Cotto and how Manny Pacquiao did against Cotto is what people will be looking for now.

First, a look at the total punch stats for each fighter:

Pacquiao vs. Cotto

Pacquiao

Total Punches: 336/780 (43 percent)
Jabs: 60/220 (27 percent)
Power Punches: 276/560 (49 percent)

Cotto

Total Punches: 172/597 (29 percent)
Jabs: 79/297 (27 percent)
Power Punches: 93/300 (31 percent)

Mayweather vs. Cotto

Mayweather

Total Punches: 179/687 (26 percent)
Jabs: 51/305 (17 percent)
Power Punches: 128/382 (34 percent)

Cotto

Total Punches: 105/506 (21 percent)
Jabs: 30/177 (17 percent)
Power Punches: 75/329 (23 percent)

From these numbers, Pacquiao looked amazing in his match with Cotto compared to Mayweather. On paper, Pacquiao dominated Cotto in every sense of the word with two knockdowns and a knockout in the 12th. 

Pacquiao landed a far greater amount of punches on Cotto (336 to Mayweather's 179) at a higher percentage than Mayweather did as well.

Where Mayweather beat Pacquiao was in his defense as Pacquiao was hit more than Mayweather was.

This is all on paper though, and paper always looks more impressive than what actually happened.