Does Freddie Roach have the perfect strategy for Cotto?

Pittsburgh Fight Sports Examiner | Scott Heritage

Freddie Roach has apparently been watching tapes of Miguel Cotto every day of the Manny Pacquiao training camp, and says he has cooked up the perfect strategy for beating the Puerta Rican.

The final preperations are in place and for Pacquiao at least, things seem to be going off without a hitch. Rumors continue to swirl about Cotto struggling with making weight, but in reality he doesn't have a huge amount to cut to make the catchweight limit. A lot of fighters lose much more than Cotto on a regular basis and seem fine during their fights. Some wrestlers involved in mixed martial arts for example are known to cut 50lbs during their training, so this shouldn't be too much trouble for Cotto.

“We’ve slowed down here, we’ll slow down in Vegas,” said Roach

“We’ll use the mitts and go to the game plan mentally,” Roach added. “[We’ll] just physically walk through [the strategy] in the ring; make sure everybody’s in the same page and fight the perfect fight.

“He knows the game plan better than me at this point,” Roach admitted. “He’s one step ahead of me at all times. I’m really happy. We’re ready to go.”

If Roach has developed just the right strategy, then expect a quick win for Pacquiao. Ricky Hatton only lasted two rounds against a perfect game plan, albeit largely due to a hole in his defence that Roach noticed. Whether Cotto has any similar holes and will be able to handle Pacquiao's power will remain to be seen, but he is slightly bigger than Hatton, and has probably recovered from his loss against Margarito more than Hatton had against Floyd Mayweather.

Cotto's traier, Joe Santiago is fairly new to his team, and even newer to the role as head coach. The lack of experience going in might well prove to be Cotto's undoing, to beat a great fighter you need to have a great trainer after all. That isn't to say Santiago isn't a great trainer, but he certainly doesn't have the pedigree fo someone like Freddie Roach, who has worked with all kinds of fighters over the years.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-20066-Pittsburgh-Fight-Sports-Examiner~y2009m11d10-Does-Freddie-Roach-have-the-perfect-strategy-for-Cotto