Within hours of the announcement that WBA super middleweight champion Miguel Cotto had won the May lottery and had been selected to face box office megastar and reigning WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 5, the internet was awash with negativity towards the fight. So fevered is the demand for a Mayweather Manny Pacquiao showdown, it seems that until those two get it on in the ring, everything else they do will be ridiculed, criticized and downgraded.

For what ever reason [the latest excuse apparently is that Mayweather offered Pacquiao the slim end of a 70 – 30 purse split], for the moment fight fans will have to wait for at least a few more months for Mayweather Pacquiao, if it ever does come off, although Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum has hinted to a November showdown.

In the meantime, we have an excellent matchup in Mayweather vs Cotto to look forward to, with the distinct possibility of Manny Pacquiao defending his WBO welterweight title against Tim Bradley, the undefeated WBO light welterweight champion, in Las Vegas the following month. Although large amounts of the public may feel manipulated and even ripped off [so what's new?] both fights will be guaranteed box office bonanzas, and it's not inconceivable that both Cotto and Bradley could even emerge victorious.

At the time of writing this article, Pacquiao and Bradley is still just speculation [although as both men are under Bob Arum's Top Rank promotional banner, it would seem only a question of time], so let's focus on the fight that has been made – Mayweather versus Cotto.

We all know about Floyd Mayweather Jr, the 34-year-old undefeated [42-0, 26 KOs] five weight world champion who has defeated a veritable Who's Who of great fighters from the 90s onwards including such stars as Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Ricky Hatton, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Oscar De La Hoya among many others. Mayweather is a supreme ring technician, a master of modern boxing science and old school trickery, but a fighter who despite his undoubted ability in the ring, could barely draw his breath at the box office until he developed his current ghetto persona ''Money Mayweather'', a kind of hip-hop caricature, prone to crass, obnoxious behavior that has kept him in the public eye, bolstered his box-office appeal and added zeroes to his paychecks.

Mayweather's 2007 bout with Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC light middleweight title remains the biggest grossing fight in boxing history, earning $137 million in PPV revenue alone, while his fights against Mosley in 2010 and most recently against Victor Ortiz are the 3rd and 2nd biggest money-makers outside the heavyweight division. People are willing to pay good money to see Mayweather in the ring. Whether it is to see him win or get his butt kicked is a moot point!

Meanwhile, outside of the ring, Mayweather appears to be losing touch with where the line of his fake persona ends and reality begins. He has made three courtroom appearances in recent months, and in June will begin a three month prison sentence for domestic assault. Former acquaintances claim his life is spiraling out of control, but at least inside the ring he still looks supreme, for now.

Waiting in the wings is the man Mayweather was accused of ducking for years, 31 year old Puerto Rican modern great Miguel Angel Cotto [37-2, 30 KOs], a three weight world champion in his own right, with career victories over the likes of Randall Bailey, DeMarcus Corley, Ricardo Torres, Carlos Quintana, Paulie Malignaggi, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Joshua Clottey, Ricardo Mayorga and Antonio Margarito.

Cotto's only defeats were his controversial 11th round TKO loss to Margarito in 2008 when in all likelihood the Mexican was sporting plaster-of-Paris inserts in his bandages, and his 12th round TKO loss in 2010 to a rampaging Manny Pacquiao who was at the top of his game.

Many, including this writer, believed that Cotto was a spent force following these two heavy losses, and remained unconvinced when he won his third world title, the WBA light middleweight belt in June 2010 with a ninth round TKO over Yuri Foreman. The jury was still out when Cotto retained his title with a 12th round TKO over the big punching but erratic and faded Nicaraguan Ricardo Mayorga last March, but in his December rematch against Margarito, a rematch I picked him to lose, Cotto looked nothing short of sensational.

Under the tutelage of Emanuel Steward, along with Freddie Roach the greatest trainer of his generation, Cotto added a whole new dimension to his game. The Puerto Rican was always an extremely effective pressure fighter, capable of moving in swiftly and landing vicious hooks to the head and body, and has long been an underrated boxer.  

However under Manny Steward's guidance, Cotto became a counterpuncher par-excellence, and that was there for all to see last December against Margarito, as time and again he slipped the Mexican's heavy left jab and potent right cross - the two punches that had done so much damage in the first fight - and landed with his own inch perfect counterpunches.

Another thing that surprised this writer was Cotto's conditioning. The Puerto Rican has added 14 pounds of quality muscle to his 5'7" frame since his days as a light welterweight, but far from making him look overly bulky, he looks sleek and powerful. The added weight has not hindered his stamina, which was excellent in the fight against Margarito. His footwork and punch rate were outstanding, while his punch resistance seems if anything to have improved at 154 lbs.

So confident is Cotto at the new weight, he has been demanding a rematch with Pacquiao, and many experts believe that if the two were to get it on a second time, the outcome would be different.

For me the biggest difference with the 2012 model Miguel Cotto and the version that was hammered by Pacquiao is not so much the added poundage but what he learned during his time with 67-year-old Emanuel Steward as his trainer. Tapping into the 30+ years of extensive boxing experience and knowledge garnered while training greats like Thomas Hearns and Lennox Lewis, turning Wladimir Klitschko into the most dominant heavyweight of his era, and also coaching the likes of Wilfredo Benitez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Mike McCallum, Milton McCrory, Gerald McClellan, Jermaine Taylor and Yuriorkis Gamboa through some of their biggest fights was clearly a positive experience and brought a supreme confidence to Cotto, and even though the two have since parted company, the experience may even lead to him scoring his biggest ever victory when he faces Mayweather in May.

Big Fight Odds: Floyd Mayweather 1/6, Miguel Cotto 4/1 bet365