Cotto was one of the best amateurs in Puerto Rico.
He is relatively strong, good boxing skills, tight defence, pretty good speed and pretty solid power.
He has more of a in your face, pressing style, but when required, he can box.
He has some decent names on his resume, Ndou (but then again, he is a stepping stone also), Bailey (who has been beaten by a lot of only decent fighters in Hurtado, Corley himself, etc), he blew out Sosa, which was probably his most noteworthy win. Sosa is a tough customer, but then again, he is a lightweight.
He has also beaten Pinto, who beat him twice in the amateurs, this was another very impressive victory. Cotto showed his patience and tight defence to soak up and dish out some punishment to Pinto.
All in all, I think Cotto could be a great great fighter, and should dispatch of Corley relatively easily! But then again, Cotto is in the hardest division in boxing today, with guys like Mitchell, Tszyu, Witter, Hatton, Mayweather, Gatti etc. All of which Cotto could give a good fight.
So, wrapping up that, I would say he is a good solid fighter with potential to be great (albeit, he is a long long way from that).
I would definately not call him the "future of boxing".
We will wait and see until he fights a couple of the BIG NAMES until we can really tell the true metal of the man!