Cotto Incognito: Evaluating Cotto's training camp

While the media swirls around Manny Pacquiao's training camp, Miguel Cotto has almost vanished as if he has gone incognito with his own preparations.

Cotto is currently in Tampa, Florida fine tuning his strategy against Pacquiao after working on his conditioning in Puerto Rico for the past several weeks.

Word from inside sources from Cotto's camp have all been positive. Cotto is in shape and is said to be looking sharper than ever for the biggest fight of his life.

For the record, I like how Cotto has gone about his business with his training. He is leaving nothing to chance and taking his destiny in his hands by pulling no stops in his training camp. He started his camp early giving him more time to study and work on his strategy and technique against Pacquiao and enabling him to have more time to get acclimated with the lighter weight he needs to make which is 145 pounds which is the catch-weight for this bout.

The one thing I question with what I've seen with Cotto is his speed. He is looking awfully slow ala Ricky Hatton and if he does not address that by fight night, Pacquiao will definitely run circles around him and counter him all night. What Cotto has though that Hatton didn't is his crafty combinations. Cotto is definitely bigger and stronger than Pacquiao and will look to avoid coming in drained the way Oscar Dela Hoya did. It will be interesting to see how Pacquiao will handle the power of a true welterweight.

Cotto's team has been studying a lot of Pacquiao's old fights and have taken a closer look at his past losses. I don't know how much those tapes will help Cotto though because Pacquiao is a totally different fighter now compared to what he was just a couple of years ago. One of the best trainers in the business Nacho Beristain alluded to this fact and praised Pacquiao's trainer for his development. In an interview published by Philboxing.com from Beristain's interview with ESPN's Spanish TV program "Golpe Y Golpe", Beristain said,

"I think Pacquiao is lucky to have him in his corner, Freddie Roach is one of the best trainers in the world and he has a lot of knowledge and he has made Pacquiao a better fighter who used to have a lot of flaws in his style. Pacquiao used to jump when throwing punches and now he is doing great from a technical point of view and that is Freddie's work."

Also, Cotto yields a significant mismatch in the corner as his head trainer will be Joe James, who will work his second bout as head coach after replacing Miguel's uncle Evangelista Cotto after an ugly falling out while Pacquiao will have Roach who is a Hall of Fame trainer and has been working with him for almost a decade now.

At the end of the day however, fighters fight inside the ring and with the caliber of Pacquiao and Cotto, anything can happen.

Source: examiner.com