By Scoop Malinowski

A few months ago, Floyd Mayweather responded to questions about fighting Miguel Cotto by saying “Miguel Cotto is a punching bag…and Miguel Cotto knows he can’t beat me.”

Well, as it turns out Floyd was wrong about Cotto. The unbeaten WBA Welterweight champ from Puerto Rico actually does want to fight Mayweather and believes he can beat the talented 30-year-old wunderkind.

But as it’s pretty obvious now, Mayweather refuses to discuss fighting Cotto and also refuses to enter into any kind of negotiations. Mayweather’s reluctance has certainly raised the eyebrows of Cotto.

Do you think Mayweather actually is afraid of you? “I don’t know what kind of reason he has for choosing another fighter,” says Cotto. “If you want to be the best you have to fight the best.”

You actually believe you will beat Floyd don’t you? “I’m pretty sure of that,” answers Cotto. When asked why he believes so: “Because of my training. Because of my - I trust a lot in myself. And I’m always do more than 100% in my training sessions.”

Cotto says he sees vulnerabilities in Mayweather which he knows how to exploit. “He’s quick. He’s fast. But when you put pressure on him he closes his mind.”

Since Cotto’s impressive domination of Alfonso Gomez earlier this month, Mayweather has been in virtual hiding. Mayweather defenders say Floyd will eventually fight Cotto but is patiently letting the fight build itself up.

But if Mayweather really wanted to fight Cotto wouldn’t he make some kind of public comment about Cotto’s latest performance, so as to stoke the fires of the inevitable showdown? And as far as I know, Mayweather didn’t even show up to watch one of his favorite boxers Bernard Hopkins against Joe Calzaghe this weekend.

Mayweather’s absolute silence about Cotto since the Gomez victory should be construed as further evidence that Mayweather would prefer to ignore Cotto than ever fight him. And that Floyd was being dishonest when he told us Cotto is just a punching bag and that Cotto knows he can’t beat Mayweather.

So therefore the truth in Floyd’s heart of hearts is probably something more like, “Cotto is the best welterweight in the world today and I’m gonna keep my big mouth shut now because I don’t want to fuel his fire any more or fuel any talks of us ever fighting each other because I could never hold him off for 12 rounds. And hopefully Cotto will lose to Antonio Margarito and I will never ever have to fight that fearless relentless beast.”

We’ll be on the lookout for the missing person Mayweather. Maybe he’s been having recurring nightmares about Cotto. Maybe he’s getting professional help to come to terms to deal with his fears. Or Bob Arum was right. Maybe Floyd did buy a ticket for a flight to Mars after seeing how violently impressive Cotto and Margarito were on April 12.