By Mark Uliano: It’s been almost a month since Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto lost his WBA Junior Middleweight title to Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather by way of unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Multiple reports are that Cotto is looking to fight again by the end of the year and his most recent fight against Mayweather showed that he is far from damaged and has another solid year or two left in him before he should retire. Some writers are saying that Cotto should move up in weight to collect another title in a fourth weight division but it’s my personal opinion that Cotto, at 5’7, would have trouble with any Middleweight champion and would do more bad than good to Cotto at this stage of his career. It seems that Cotto has been comfortable at the Junior Middleweight division, along with new head trainer Pedro Diaz, and there are multiple fighters that he can challenge for a title:

Austin Trout (WBA Champion) – Trout (25-0, 14 KO) is coming off a rather boring unanimous decision over Delvin Rodriguez this past weekend on Showtime would be a good fight for Cotto for the WBA title. Trout looked mediocre against a fighter whose biggest fight before Saturday were his two fights, one draw and one unanimous decision, against Pawel Wolak. Trout has yet to fight a top contender in the Junior Middleweight division and would most likely lose his strap when he does so. A good test to see where Trout stands would be a Cotto fight.

Cornelius ‘K9’ Bundrage (IBF Champion) – The 39-year old dog (31-4, 18KO) from Detroit, Michigan has an upcoming IBF title defense against Cory Spinks on June 30th in Indio, California on Showtime. In the past K9 said he would love to fight Cotto to unify the IBF and WBA titles. Now that Cotto is no longer the WBA title-holder, K9 may not want the fight. Bundrage coming off back-to-back wins over Sechew Powell and Cory Spinks will be on a year layoff when he steps into the ring for the rematch with Spinks on the Golden Boy Promotions SHOBox card. If K9 can come out victorious over Spinks once again, Cotto could possibly be considered as his next opponent.

Zauerbek Baysangurov (WBO Champion) – Not much is known of the 27-year old from Russia. His 27-1, 20KO record doesn’t mean much as he’s never crossed the pond to the United States to fight. The only relevant name on his resume is current IBF Champion Cornelius ‘K9’ Bundrage in which he lost by 5th round TKO in 2008. I don’t see the Russian coming to the US or Cotto going to Europe in a zero interest fight at this stage of his career.

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (WBC Champion) – Also on the May 5th card we saw Saul Alvarez dismantle former three division champ and future Hall of Famer Sugar Shane Mosley. Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO) is the future face of Golden Boy Promotions and the Mexican community. Alvarez has been slowly brought along by his handlers the past couple of years and the fans are ready to see him put in with a real threat. I can see Carlos Molina, Vanes Martirosyan along with Austin Trout being considered for his September 15th fight after the injuries to Paul Williams and James Kirkland. This would be a risky fight for Cotto in that if he wins, Canelo supporters would say Cotto was expected to win due to Canelos poor resume. If Canelo wins, it would be seen as a great victory taking out yet another future Hall of Famer. After a September fight I don’t see Canelo fighting before the end of the year. It would be another classic Mexico vs Puerto Rico rivalry that would be an all out war, but I believe this fight will be put on hold till next year for May, Cinco de Mayo, in Las Vegas or June, the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, in NYC.

Of course there are stay busy fights for Cotto in Martirosyan, Lara, or Quintana that he can take until a big PPV comes along next year, but I think that at this point Cotto is looking for the big money fights as being one of boxings biggest draws if he was going to risk taking another loss on his record.