Mayweather vs Cotto: Floyd Not Worried About Move Up in Weight

Floyd Mayweather Jr isn't buying a big part of the Golden Boy and HBO pay-per-view hype that his moving up in weight to 154 pounds to face Miguel Cotto will be a factor in Saturday's fight. One of the main selling points from a Cotto upset point of view has been that he's the bigger man, but Mayweather's just not seeing himself at any kind of disadvantage. From BoxingScene.com:

"I think my skills are on a different level from any other fighter, so when it’s all said and done skills pays the bills. You got certain guys that it all depends on what style of boxing, what style of fighting a guy is doing when you move up to a different weight class. ... I don’t really think weight is going to really play a major key. I think it’s going to come down to the skills."

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO) has fought once at 154 pounds, beating Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. De La Hoya was legitimately bigger than Mayweather, but Cotto is listed as shorter in height and reach than Floyd, and was in many ways a sort of smallish welterweight. For a junior middleweight, he's positively tiny.

Not to ruin a good chunk of the fight preview coming tomorrow, but I think Mayweather is 100% right when he says this fight is nothing to do with size and everything to do with skills.

At 154 pounds, Cotto (37-2, 30 KO) has beaten Yuri Foreman, who was honestly a non-factor guided effectively to a world title; a washed-up Ricardo Mayorga; and a washed-up Antonio Margarito who had one good eye. Two brawlers and a guy who didn't really like fighting.

We're not exactly talking about the cream of the crop facing Cotto at 154 pounds. Mayweather's the first elite fighter that Cotto has faced since Manny Pacquiao in 2009, and frankly I don't buy that the 145-pound catchweight was any part of the reason Cotto lost to Pacquiao, either, which both Mayweather and Cotto seem to be pushing.

Cotto has excessively thanked Mayweather for fighting him at 154 pounds, saying that to fight for the title, it has to be at the full weight. In Cotto's last fight, he made Antonio Margarito agree to a pointless 153-pound catchweight.

More Mayweather-Cotto Coverage From SBN
Bad Left Hook | SB Nation | MMA Mania | Bloody Elbow