If trash-talking won fights, Ricardo Mayorga might be the greatest boxer of all time.
Mayorga, the sharp-tongued Nicaraguan, has called Miguel Cotto, his opponent Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and Cotto's trainer, highly respected Emanuel Steward, failures and clowns.
Wednesday, during the fight's final news conference, Mayorga said he wanted to thank Bob Arum, Cotto's promoter, "for allowing me to eat his sheep on Saturday night."
Said Steward: "It's a good thing that fights are not won at press conferences because we'd be knocked out of the box."
But Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KOs) still has to meet Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) in the ring (Showtime pay-per-view, 9 ET), with the Puerto Rican's WBA light middleweight title on the line, and that's where Mayorga has had his troubles.
"I don't care what he (Mayorga) is saying about me," Cotto says. "He's always going to be talking, but as everyone knows, the fight starts when you enter the ring, and that's where I'm going to win the fight — in the ring."
Mayorga has fought only once since being knocked out in the 12th round by Shane Mosley in September 2008, and has had just eight fights in eight years, going 4-4 against a formidable lineup that included Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Cory Spinks and Fernando Vargas.
He says that a bad car accident before his knockout loss to Trinidad in 2004 made him fight through pain most of his last six fights, and he took the last two years off to fully heal.
Mayorga has been known to drink beer and smoke cigarettes while training for fights, but this time he insists he's taking his training seriously.
Al Bernstein, a member of Showtime's broadcast team who spent time in Mayorga's camp in Ocala, Fla., agrees.
"He was only 5 pounds away from making weight," Bernstein said by phone this week. "You could tell he was in good condition. He was serious."Mayorga has another motive for being in what he calls the best shape of his life — a fight with another of Arum's fighters, the world's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and titlist in a record eight weight classes, Manny Pacquiao.
"This is the fight where I'm going to impose my will so much so that — because I want a fight so bad with Pacquiao
— that if I don't beat Cotto by knockout and I happen to beat him by decision, then I don't feel like I'm deserving of a fight with Pacquiao.
— that if I don't beat Cotto by knockout and I happen to beat him by decision, then I don't feel like I'm deserving of a fight with Pacquiao."When I knock out Manny Pacquiao, I will become the most famous fighter of all time. That is what I want and am working for."
Mayorga, in a show of disdain for his opponent, plans to weigh in Friday "with a plate of Puerto Rican food to show Miguel I'm in the best shape of my life."
"My immediate goals are to knock out Cotto and then to fight and knock out Pacquiao," he said.
"I'm 37 years old and thinking about retirement. I will move on and let the younger guys have a shot like the older guys did for me when I was coming up."
Cotto, meanwhile, is coming off a string of tough fights, including a brutal beating at the hands of Antonio Margarito more than two years ago, and a bloody 12th-round TKO loss to Pacquiao in November 2009.
Margarito was found to have plastered hand wraps before his next fight against Mosley and was suspended from boxing in the USA.
Last June at Yankee Stadium, Cotto stopped then-WBA champion Yuri Foreman in the ninth round after Foreman injured his knee. It was far from a dominating performance against a fighter who was essentially working with one leg through the last three rounds. Foreman is making his comeback fight vs. Pawel Wolak on the undercard.
Bernstein believes if Mayorga — an unconventional, if not wild, brawler — can lure favored Cotto into a shootout, Mayorga might have a chance to win.
"He might get starched in that instance, too, because Cotto punches, and God knows, Mayorga can be hit," Bernstein says. "But it at least gives Mayorga a real chance of winning and makes it a fan-friendly fight.
"Mayorga really, really is engaged in winning this fight. I think it's going to be four to six rounds of warfare, because Cotto's only fought one fight at 154, and Mayorga is a real 154-pounder. Cotto's a better fighter, but Mayorga is the bigger guy."
Source: usatoday.com
