Mayweather vs. Cotto Highlights: Miguel Cotto Leaves Lasting Impression in Loss

Miguel Cotto may have lost the bout against Floyd Mayweather, but he left a lasting impression on not only his opponent, but the boxing world as a whole.

With all the questions surrounding Mayweather's future and a potential showdown with Manny Pacquiao, there is one thing we can know for certain coming out of this fight: Miguel Cotto is a very good fighter.

To take Mayweather all 12-rounds and force a decision is one thing, and that alone will win you respect in most boxing circles. To take him 12 rounds, bloody up his nose and win his respect is a completely different thing, and it goes to show you just how good Cotto really is.

He gave Mayweather a run for his money and after the fight, Mayweather had nothing but praise for his opponent. Here's what he had to say about the fight via Dan Rafael of ESPN.com:

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"He's a tough competitor," Mayweather said. "I knew I was going to have to come in the ring to fight hard and execute the game plan. Cotto is a future Hall of Famer and he is no pushover. We fought at his weight class. He came to fight. He didn't come to survive, he came to fight. So I dug down and fought him back."

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Coming from Mayweather, who is known more for his trash talk than he is for showing respect to his opponents, this is huge.

You could just tell that Mayweather knew he was in an incredible fight, and that show of respect via his comments after the fight is a very telling sign as to how good Cotto really is.

With the loss, Cotto falls to 37-3 with 30 KO's, but at only 31 years old, one could expect many more years of great boxing for him.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this great showing against Mayweather actually motivates Cotto into the future.

After all, if he can go toe-to-toe with the best fighter in the world right now, how much less intimidating does that make everyone else?

Anytime you lose it's going to be hard, but in the long run this showing from Cotto may do him more good than the loss did him harm.