"I think it's still an interesting fight. The only thing is I think Cotto is too slow for Floyd. He's like one step behind Floyd. Cotto may be a little stronger, but he's a counter puncher, and he's a counter puncher that's not fast enough to counter Floyd. So that's going to create a problem for him and in order for him to give himself a chance to win, he's going to have to lead. He's going to have to come out of his comfort zone and do something he's never done before: become the aggressor and be the guy that's gotta press the fight, because if he don't, he's not going to have a chance at all. Floyd will pick him apart. He has no chance at all to try to sit back and outthink Floyd; he can forget it. It will never happen," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who shared his thoughts on his nephew's May 5 showdown with Miguel Cotto. Check out what else he had to say!
PC: Your nephew just got licensed to fight in Nevada on May 5th and the opponent is Miguel Cotto. What's your take on the fight and Nevada granting the license for Lil Floyd to fight?
JM: Well, I mean, I think it was imperative for them to license him because that was the whole basis of the case, solely for him to fight. I mean, Floyd generates over $100 million for this economy on just the weekend, so it would be asinine not to license him when he can generate this kind of money for the city. It would be different if you were talking about him spending 3 years in jail, but we're talking about 3 months. Why would you lock a guy up for 3 months and have the tax payers paying for him to be there rather than allowing him to generate the kind of money that he generates for the community here? Like I said, he creates jobs and everything. It's a major weekend when Floyd fights and it's the biggest boxing day period. Don't get me wrong, you can say what you want about Floyd, but at the same time, unfortunately those haters and people that dislike him have to accept the fact that he is the biggest draw in boxing and he generates capital for this economy.
PC: A lot of people wanted to see this fight back when both fighters were with Top Rank. Now that it is a reality, how do you see it playing out?
JM: I think it's a fight in which...I think it's still an interesting fight. The only thing is I think Cotto is too slow for Floyd. He's like one step behind Floyd. Cotto may be a little stronger, but he's a counter puncher, and he's a counter puncher that's not fast enough to counter Floyd. So that's going to create a problem for him and in order for him to give himself a chance to win, he's going to have to lead. He's going to have to come out of his comfort zone and do something he's never done before: become the aggressor and be the guy that's gotta press the fight, because if he don't, he's not going to have a chance at all. Floyd will pick him apart. He has no chance at all to try to sit back and outthink Floyd; he can forget it. It will never happen.
PC: Even though you're not actually in Floyd's camp, when these fights are announced, as his uncle, do you start to watch fights of his opponents and break them down or do you just know about these guys from watching them throughout their career?
JM: Don't get me wrong, someone like Cotto, I have been watching for years and it's easy for me to assess. I don't even have to watch film of him to know what Floyd has to do to beat him. It's the exact same thing with Pacquiao. I mean, Pacquiao is so one-dimensional, it only takes for me to watch some of his fights. I mean, there is nothing different because every fight is the same. So with that being said, it makes it easy to come up with a game plan for these types of guys. Floyd brings something different than most fighters do and that's he is a great defensive fighter, great counter puncher, and Floyd can beat you any way he wants to. He can let you fight your fight and he will still beat you at it. You will think you are fighting your fight and then you will realize you are fighting his fight. That's one thing I have to take my hat off to Floyd for because Floyd is the smartest fighter on the planet right now because he could figure out a way to beat someone no matter what their game plan is. No matter what their game plan is, he finds a way to make them get out of their game plan or even make them think that they are still fighting their game plan and they come up short.
PC: Floyd is fighting him at 154 for his title and Cotto is undefeated at that weight class...
JM: (Cutting in) First of all, that's one thing you gotta take your hat off to Floyd for. Floyd is not fighting him at a catchweight. He's not telling Cotto to meet him at 50 or meet him at 47. He's saying, "Hey, I'm gonna fight you for your title at your weight." I mean, with all of these mythical titles that Manny won, because he fought this guy at 145; that's kind of like what Ray Leonard started. Ray Leonard was the first guy that I saw do something like that. Ray Leonard fought a guy that was 175 pounds at 168 pounds for a 175-pound title and that makes no sense. Boxing wasn't designed or made that way. That's why they have weight classes and if you want to fight a person in their weight class, that's what you do. You fight them at that weight class. That's one thing that you can take your hat off to Floyd for because every time Floyd has fought someone, it's never been at a catchweight. It's always been at whatever they weighed or whatever he was weighing at that time.
PC: Do you think we will ever see Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight each other?
JM: I think that the fight will still happen. The only thing is, it's like I said, the fight may still happen, but I don't think it will have the luster that it once had because at one time, Pacquiao had such a great run that people really gave him a chance of beating Floyd. But if he has another bad performance, which he possibly could against Tim Bradley because Tim Bradley is a good, solid fighter; at the same time, I think Pacquiao is going to beat him, but I don't think he's going to look good in beating him, and another bad performance only damages the possibility of the fight still having that luster and still having the fans enthusiastic to see it and wanting to run to the fight or buy the pay-per-view and pay their money to see the fight. Don't get me wrong, a lot of that is going to be based also on Floyd's performance against Cotto. There is still a chance. They both will have something at stake, but I feel that Pacquiao has more to prove than Floyd. Floyd hasn't had any bad performances other than a long, long time ago against Castillo, and that's it. That's one in his whole career and Pacquiao has had two abysmal performances back to back.
PC: Do you have any concerns that mentally Lil Floyd could have a, and I know he's a mentally strong guy, but knowing he's gotta go serve time less than a month after this fight, do you have any concerns there?
JM: No. The reason why is because, one thing about boxing is this, when you are a great fighter, you handle everything and the ring is the only place where you're happy and content. The ring is the only place where you feel like you own it, and that's what great fighters do. They take that adversity and they use it and excel. It's just like Mike Tyson. He had way more adversity than Floyd. Every time he was in the ring, he had some type of legal ramifications going on in his life, but he took it in the ring. That was his sanctuary and that's where he felt at peace and that's when he performed best, and that's just like Floyd. It never gets inside of his head to where he will use that as an excuse like they did for Juan Ma. He was going through a divorce. As a fighter, once you sign the contract, you still gotta fight no matter what's going on in your life. You gotta separate the two and that's what great fighters do. They separate business from whatever else is going on.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]