By Donald Stewart

El Matador or Juanito?

Will it be the craziest man in the sport or the man with Emanuel Steward in his corner?

No matter who wins on the Saturday showdown, there should be carnage from the canvas as two uncompromising fighters square up and set us off on a twelve round journey that will see one crowned the WBA Light Middleweight Champ and or the other there shall be mixed fortunes.

If Cotto triumphs, and let me be honest, much of the smart money is on Cotto. Mayorga may be looking at the road to retirement. Whisper it though because he does not want people to say it out loud and in his presence. Mayorga likes to run his mouth and therefore has little time to listen.

Should Mayorga win then the unthinkable is that we shall ALL have to listen to how he was right and the rest of us knuckle heads were just plain stupid.

For Cotto it would be yet another setback alongside having lost to the likes of Pacquiao and Margarito. It may be more than that though…

Mayorga has lost seven times. In his last six fights he has lost half of them. His pride has brought him into the ring against Cotto and it may well be his undoing. There again it might prove to be the very thing that makes him stand up, walk tall and beat Cotto.

It’s a long way from his first professional fight which he lost, then he lost his tenth and eleventh fights. It must have looked bleak. You have to give praise to the dogged determination that saw, in the next 5 years, 19 fights without loss until Cory Spinks spoilt his party.

Whilst Cotto has two blips on his belts from major players Mayorga can count losses to Oscar De La Hoya alongside the Spinks loss as well as to Sugar Shane Mosley. These are major league fighters but they can play on the mind of a boxer who knows that he needs another major scalp to resurrect his reputation. Cotto would achieve that!

Whilst Mayorga is ranked outside the top 40 in the world at this weight, Cotto sits at number one! Those two losses have come by way of technical knockouts in rounds 11 and 12 so Cotto has stamina in with the best. Had he managed to win both contests it may have been Cotto’s name mentioned alongside Floyd Mayweather, JR., rather than Manny Pacquiao’s.

Unfortunately for Cotto, that was not to be, but when the contracts were sealed for Saturday at the MGM Grand in Vegas did he really understand how much of a loose cannon his new mate was?

Mayorga managed to rile him up at one press conference so much that the major insult ranged from I have more belts than you have to you are a joker and a clown…

One thing is certain. This is not going to be a fight many of us will be able to ignore. An early contender for the fight of the year, Mayorga will not go down without one hell of a fight and Cotto has a dream he wants to realise and that may take Mayorga out on the way.

Mayorga comes out fighting. He stands toe to toe and will not back down. Cotto is certainly more cultured but needs to deal with the Mayorga onslaught.

Mayorga, who has mentioned a side ways move to MMA, has been ravaged over time. He has been shedding the weight. It’s a big ask for Mayorga to shed the weight and still manage to beat Cotto.

Cotto has been widely seen as damaged goods since his defeat to Margarito. That is harsh. Margarita cheated! To win I believe that Cotto must survive the first three or so rounds.

If he can outbox him then he will beat him. If he gets caught Margarito will triumph and with his hand raised a career that was at a cross roads becomes the phoenix of 2010.

Culture versus brawn.

Boxer versus fighter.

It’s an age old debate.

The next chapter is coming.

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