During last night's HBO World Champion Boxing telecast, world-class trainer Emanuel Steward shared his thoughts on the upcoming May 5th showdown between undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather and WBA jr. middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. "Well, he's gotta fight a very, very specifict style of fighting and really to operate behind a good solid jab and to keep his balance," Steward commented when asked what Cotto would have to do in order to be victorious in the fight. Having worked with Cotto in 2 out of his last 3 fights, Steward knows a thing or two about what he's capable of doing inside the ring.
It was Steward who resurrected Cotto's career as a jr. middleweight in the aftermath of his devastating 12th round TKO loss to Manny Pacquiao. In their first fight together, Cotto scored a 9th round TKO victory over Yuri Foreman to win the WBA title in his debut at jr. middleweight. In their second fight together, Cotto made his first successful defense of the title, scoring a 12th round TKO victory over Ricardo Mayorga. In his last bout, however, Cotto decided to replace Steward with Pedro Luis Diaz. Ironically, it was Steward who played a major role in convincing Cotto to take the rematch in the first place, but rumor has it that a disagrement in Steward's pay prompted Cotto to make the change. Nevertheless, Cotto moved forward with his new trainer and got the vengeance he was looking for, stopping Margarito in the 10th round and avenging one of the only two losses in his career.
Although Cotto appeared to implement a more technical boxing style in his bout with Margarito, Steward is not convinced it will be enough against a superior boxer such as Mayweather. "Whether he fights with his head down, feet too far apart, Floyd will systematically break him down, and also what Floyd has going for him, he has the ability to think so well under any condition during the fight at any point in time," Steward explained. "He needs to lead, but he gotta do it in a very careful way, in particular behind a jab and maintain a good balance. He's got a rough, rough job ahead of him."