‘Hard road’ – Floyd Mayweather names toughest opponent he boxed during Hall of Fame career
Floyd Mayweather fought several great fighters during his illustrious career, but ‘TBE’ insists nobody gave him a tougher time than Miguel Cotto.
The pair met at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas back in 2012 for Cotto’s WBA super welterweight title.
Mayweather had initially been in negotiations to face Manny Pacquiao earlier in the year but those discussions collapsed when both parties were unable to agree on how the purse should be split.
Instead, a deal was struck with Cotto, who had rebounded from a last-gasp stoppage loss to Pacquiao three years prior to snatch the WBA belt from Yuri Foreman.
Mayweather was making his second appearance at 154lbs after previously beating Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC’s version of the super welterweight crown in 2007.
Cotto made good use of his larger frame by forcing Mayweather onto his heels and roughing him up on the inside.
However, the American was able use Cotto’s aggression against him with effective catches and counters.
In the end, Mayweather got his hand raised via unanimous decision with scorecards of 117–111, 117–111, and 118–110 in his favour.
The final punch stats showed that Mayweather had outlanded Cotto by 179 punches to 105.
“Emanuel Augustus was tough, Miguel Cotto was tougher,” he said during a post-fight media scrum.
“Miguel Cotto is the toughest fighter I’ve faced.
“What Miguel Cotto did, he tried to come on strong in the later rounds, which forced me to fight harder.
“He brought, I don’t want to say the best out of Floyd Mayweather, but he made me start throwing combinations, the right hook mixed with the uppercut.
“He worked hard and took the hard road like me. It was a very exciting fight.”
Cotto hung up his gloves in 2017 after an impressive 16-year run in the paid ranks that saw him win world titles in four separate weight classes from super lightweight to middleweight.
In 2007 and 2009, he reached a peak pound-for-pound ranking of seventh with Ring Magazine and beat several great fighters in his heyday including Shane Mosley, Sergio Martinez and Antonio Margarito.
