Mayweather-Cotto: Under the Lights

Adrien Broner Follows in Money’s Footsteps

By Kieran Mulvaney

Adrien Broner - Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland

Whenever he chooses to step away from the ring – and he has said recently he would like to fight for two more years – Floyd Mayweather is unquestionably nearer the end of his career than the beginning of it. And every time one of boxing’s leading lights – be it Mayweather, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, or Oscar De La Hoya – begins to approach retirement age, anxious eyes inevitably cast around for a possible successor.

There is no shortage of prognosticators who would argue that Mayweather’s replacement is right in front of our eyes in the form of Cincinnati-based super featherweight champion Adrien Broner. The fast hand speed in the ring, the flashy style outside it – the comparisons are natural and obvious.

It’s an evaluation that Broner clearly enjoys.

“I’m one of the youngest in the game, and I’m already getting compared to one of the best who’s on top right now,” he says. “That just makes me feel more great and makes me work harder.”

Of course, he points out, “Floyd is Floyd and Adrien Broner is Adrien Broner.” But he acknowledges Mayweather’s influence on his career from an early age.

“Everybody who ever made it in this sport had somebody that he looked up to,” he says. “They take something from that person and they make it into their own. That’s what I did, since I was about 12. I saw him when he fought Diego Corrales, and after that I was just stuck. Definitely, definitely, I model my style on his. Every fight he has, I learn more and more and more, and I just put it in my own.”

Not surprisingly, while admiring of Miguel Cotto – “Cotto should be in the Hall of Fame, I think so” – he does not think the Puerto Rican will have any success against Mayweather on Saturday night:

“Floyd is great. What can I say? He does things that you can’t teach. People say I have that same talent. Tomorrow, I don’t see it going past 8 rounds. Anything can happen; this is boxing. But I just don’t think it’s going past 8, whatever happens.”

Broner returns to the ring on May 19, fighting at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on HBO World Championship Boxing, and, he says, he’s working on the whole package, from fight plan to ring entrance.

“We’re going to dance our way in and dance our way out. That’s what we do,” he says. It is that showmanship, as much as his boxing, that earns the parallels with Mayweather, and like his mentor he embraces that part of his game.

“That’s the thing,” he points out. “I’m not just a professional boxer. I’m an entertainer. I should be in the movies. I should have a camera on me all day. This is what I do.” So there’ll be an Adrien Broner 24/7 soon? “Nah, they gonna call mine 24/8. They need another day for me,” he smiles.

Now, who does that remind you of?

Mayweather-Cotto: Final Press Conference

From the MGM’s Hollywood theater, writers offer their predictions at the last press conference before the fight. Watch video straight from the scene in Vegas.

Mayweather-Cotto: Inside the Stats

By Kieran Mulvaney and Eric Raskin

Your faithful Inside HBO Boxing bloggers, Eric Raskin and Kieran Mulvaney, are at it again, poring over the CompuBox stats and interpreting what they mean for Saturday night’s throwdown. Before Mayweather and Cotto exchange punches, Raskin and Mulvaney exchanged thoughts:

Raskin: Kieran, great to be back with you to break down another mega-event, this one featuring two of the very biggest stars in the sport, Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto. Looking over the CompuBox data on these fighters, it’s interesting that in his last fight, against Victor Ortiz, Mayweather averaged 52 punches thrown per round, his highest total since 2005. Do you see him approaching that number against Cotto?

Mulvaney: My initial response is to say no. Victor Ortiz is Victor Ortiz, and Miguel Cotto is … better. A lot better. But Floyd has, in his last couple of fights, stepped forward more and been a much more aggressive fighter. And when Cotto has been troubled in the past, it’s been by guys who have overwhelmed him with punches. Mayweather may have calculated he’d be best served doing the same.

Click to read more ...

How It Feels to Face Off Against Mayweather and Cotto

By Zab Judah (as told to Eric Raskin)

Floyd Mayweather, Zab Judah - Photo Credit: Chris Polk

I’ve been in the ring with both Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto, and I can tell you for a fact, they’re both excellent fighters. I have nothing but respect for both of them. But one of them has to lose, and based on my experience facing them, I think Cotto is going to be in trouble on May 5.

Until you get in the ring with Floyd, you can’t appreciate just how slick his defense is. That’s his main attribute, he’s a defensive master. He’s very hard to hit. You think you can land a combination? Forget about that. You basically hope to get one punch off, a jab or a straight left or a hook (remember, I’m a southpaw). Maybe a left and a hook together. But as far as getting a real combination off, that’s just not going to happen.

And as we all know, Miguel Cotto is not the fastest fighter in the world. If Cotto is going to hurt Mayweather, it will have to be from a single shot, thrown in close, on the inside. The only way for him to fight Mayweather is to get in close and trap him on the ropes and hope to get a good shot off.

Miguel Cotto, Zab Judah - Photo Credit: Will HartBut Floyd won’t make that easy for him. One thing I’ll tell you for sure, Floyd’s going to be moving in this fight. Cotto had better not listen to what Floyd says, if Floyd is talking about wanting to trade with Cotto or knock him out. Floyd’s got a big mouth, so I was prepared for me and Floyd to have a one-on-one stand-off—round one, the bell rings, we were going to meet in the middle and we were going to go for broke. That’s the kind of fight I thought it would be based on listening to Floyd talk, and that fight did not happen. He came out and started moving. So Cotto had better be prepared for that.

And here’s what Floyd needs to be prepared for: Cotto is a very hard puncher. He’s probably the second hardest puncher I’ve ever faced, right behind Lucas Matthysse. And, not to take away from Miguel Cotto’s victory against me, but the low blows definitely slowed me down. I’m not complaining, I can’t dwell on it, I’ve moved forward. But I would definitely tell Floyd to watch out for those low blows.

I know some people are saying Cotto isn’t the same fighter now that he was when I fought him, but I’m not prepared to say that myself. I can never call any fighter diminished, finished, over. I remember a couple months ago, they were telling me I was finished, and then I went out and defeated Vernon Paris. From the outside, you never know what a person is going through. Yeah, we can look at a fight and see that one person has more skill than another, but who are we to tell somebody when they’re finished?

I expect Cotto to come to fight. But it’s not going to be enough. I’ve got Mayweather by ninth or 10th-round stoppage. I’ve had an opportunity to watch him train lately, and he’s been looking good. So I’m looking for Floyd to go in there and put on a clinic.