• Steve Bunce

No weight on Floyd's mind

Although Floyd Mayweather Jnr's clash with Miguel Cotto on May 5 is for the Puerto Rican's light-middleweight title, anyone that thinks Floyd won't make Cotto lose a bit of weight (the light-middleweight limit is 154lbs) is mad.

There's two ways of looking at the Mayweather-Cotto fight. The first is that Mayweather has a fantastic advantage because he's making Cotto lose a few pounds. The second is that Cotto has as much of an advantage because he's making Floyd fight out of his comfortable weight.

There are two interpretations, with strong arguments for both. Cotto, with the right diet, can make 150lbs, quite comfortably. However, we all know Mayweather is a freak when it comes to his weight. He weighs in at 147lbs - the welterweight limit - for the majority of his fights and when he gets in the ring he's not that much bigger. He's not one of these guys who puts on 10 or 20lbs because he walks around at a similar weight. He's not a guy that's ever been big at ballooning up or shrinking down and that's what makes him dangerous anywhere between 143lbs and 150lbs because that's where he's been fighting for years.

That's what happened in the olden days - guys that were welterweight were welterweights because they weighed in on the afternoon of the fight. That would suit Mayweather down to the ground, although health and safety might have something to say about that. Cotto can easily make 150lbs, especially if he gets, as is being reported, somewhere in the region of $30 million in a fight that would, in theory, have become one of the top grossing fights in the sport's history.

Cotto appears a different fighter under Pedro Diaz. He's lifted that problem that was inside his head. That problem was Antonio Margarito. During that fight - in which Cotto gained revenge for his savage 2008 defeat by the Mexican by beating him to retain his WBA belt in December - he became a different fighter. He's a cleverer fighter, he's a smarter fighter, but he has had to be as he's getting older, wiser and slower. He needed to change; he needed to evolve as a fighter. All great fighters that have long careers have to evolve; Mayweather is possibly an exception to the rule - he's had a long career but with plenty of long breaks and hand-picked opponents so he hasn't had to change the way he fights.

I see the Cotto that beat Margarito giving Mayweather a really testing time, a hard night. However, I don't see Mayweather as keen to engage as Margarito was, which makes it harder for Cotto. We may see the Cotto of old: coming forward and being aggressive, getting over his front foot, breaking down the ring and getting close. The danger of doing any of those things is you can get picked off, and picked off, and eventually hurt by the master that is Mayweather.

Twitter wars
Fighters calling each other out has been going on for centuries, and I mean centuries. However, fighters calling each other out over Twitter is a relatively new phenomenon. Victor Ortiz has taken to the social networking site to say he wants to fight Amir Khan, and I'm sure Khan would want to fight Ortiz (the Brit beat him as an amateur). Twitter can be used as a gauge by promoters to work out whether the fight would be a success or not. That sounds mad but it can work that way. Ortiz has actually issued a challenge to a few fighters through Twitter.

These fighters have hundreds of thousands and, in some cases, millions of followers and if the reaction to the tweets is favourable I firmly believe it increases the chances of the fight happening. It's like having an independent, and FREE, poll available. Instead of talking to market experts, casinos and the broadcasters, you get the ball rolling on Twitter and then if hundreds of thousands of people say it's a good fight then you take it to the casinos.

David Haye needs to let Dereck Chisora have his time in the spotlight © PA Photos

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Haye biding his time
The closer we get to Vitali Klitschko fighting Dereck Chisora (on February 18) the less we are hearing from David Haye. The Klitschkos and their management team have ruled out Haye v Vitali, with the understanding that Haye has been asking for too much money. My gut feeling is that Haye will be ringside in Munich and he'll watch very closely what Chisora does and, depending on how that fight ends, start screaming again. I think it's only right for a big fight involving a British boxer and a Klitschko that David Haye keeps quiet. This is Chisora's big night; Haye has had his big night. It's not polite when other fighters start trying to steal your thunder. Win, lose or draw in Munich, until that fight is over I'm glad Haye has done the sensible thing and said 'this is about Dereck Chisora, after the fight I'll start making some noise'. Well, I hope that is what he has said.

Quigg gets reality check
It was amazing going into the weekend fight that nobody gave Jamie Arthur a chance against the undefeated Scott Quigg. He came close to upsetting Quigg, he gave him the wake up he needed and, in a bizarre way, it probably means the Quigg-Carl Framtpon fight will happen sooner rather than later. It will be a good domestic fight. However, for it to be a massive domestic showdown the pair of them need a bit more exposure and they both need more rounds under their belt. Right now it's a good domestic fight but, in a year, it could be massive.

Steve Bunce is co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption show. Click here for more details

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