Cotto/Margarito: If Miguel Cotto Beats Margarito Should He Be Rated As The Best In The World At Welterweight?

riddick boweby James Slater: When first reading the above title to this article, many fight fans will possibly cry out, “Yes, of course!” But technically, the question is a valid one. Isn’t Floyd Mayweather, the so called pound-for-pound king in all of boxing, the lineal welterweight champion of the world? He sure is, and therefore until “Pretty Boy” is beaten by a welterweight can Cotto, or anyone else for that matter, be called the best on the planet at 147 pounds instead of him?

Many fans are losing patience/interest with Mayweather. Picking fights with guys that are either below the welterweight limit or above it – see Hatton and De La Hoya – Floyd has done nothing at 147 pounds for quite some time now. Yet Mayweather is still the world champ at welterweight, as recognised by many influential sources – “The Bible of Boxing” for one. But Miguel Cotto, Floyd’s number one threat at 147, has arguably been fighting, and is fighting, better men ( the game, but out of his depth Alfonso Gomez aside) at welterweight than Mayweather ever has..

Mayweather has only really beaten one top-notch welterweight in his entire career – Zab Judah. Cotto, conversely, has recently beaten Shane Mosley ( who had re-proven his own worth up at welter with a comprehensive win over Luis Collazo), current WBO 147 pound champ Carlos Quintana AND Judah. Not only that, but Cotto stopped Judah and gave him a severe beating, whereas Zab took Floyd the distance and gave him what just might have been a tougher fight than the one he gave “Junito.” Further adding to Cotto’s credentials at welterweight is the fact that next up for the Puerto Rican star is the teak-tough Antonio Margarito. Should he get past this fight, very possibly the hardest of his career, Cotto surely will have done enough to be considered the very best in the world at welterweight.

Floyd Mayweather may be unbeaten and he may have lineal championship status at 147 pounds, but due to his lack of top fights at the weight “Pretty Boy” is in danger of being surpassed in the minds of many fight fans as the number one operator in the division. Miguel Cotto is the fighter most likely to do it, if he hasn’t already. And if Cotto defeats Margarito in July he will almost certainly have done enough.

Not only will the welterweight ratings of many people be undergoing a change if and when Cotto beats Margarito in the summer – it’s also possible that these peoples’ pound-for-pound ratings will be getting the same treatment.

In the final analysis, Miguel Cotto is choosing to fight the best fighters he can at welterweight – Floyd Mayweather is not.