By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) wants to return to the ring near or in May of next year for his next fight. Cotto is looking at the possibility of fighting WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez or former IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. If he faces Canelo then Cotto will need to change his fight date to March because that’s when Canelo plans on fighting next. Canelo announced last week that he plans on fighting on March 8th, July 26th and November 22nd in 2014. He’s not likely to bend his schedule to accommodate Cotto.
Cotto’s adviser Gabriel Penagaricano told Primera Hora “Our intention is to have a decision made on who he will face before the end of 2013. Miguel is interested in fighting near the end of May in order to have a chance to do a good tour, and good promotion. Canelo’s people are interested…Cotto also asked about [Sergio] Martinez. Both are attractive fights.”
Cotto is a promotional free agent, and can fight against Golden Boy Promotions or Top Rank fighters. That’s a good deal for Cotto because if he were with Top Rank then a fight against Canelo wouldn’t be possible. Cotto will have his hands full against both Canelo and Sergio Martinez, so it really doesn’t matter which one he faces. The bigger money fight would obviously be against Canelo, but Cotto might still opt for a fight against Sergio Martinez due to him having the WBC middleweight title.
Cotto would like to get an opportunity to capture a title at 160. However, even if Cotto did beat Martinez to capture the WBC title, he wouldn’t be seen as the best fighter in the middleweight division. Instead, Cotto would be perceived as a belt holder only because the guy that boxing fans recognize ad the real champion of the middleweight division is WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
The other middleweight champions are seen as largely paper champions only by fans. If Cotto is happy with going after a paper title holder, then Sergio is his guy. But the title won’t mean a whole lot other than Cotto beating an aging soon to be 39-year-old Martinez. Cotto would be better off facing Canelo for a bigger payday, because at least Canelo is considered to be the best fighter at 154 if you ignore Floyd Mayweather Jr. Cotto would get a bigger payday against Canelo than he would Sergio, and he’d stand to gain more in terms of popularity if he beat Canelo than he would Sergio. Canelo is in his prime at 23, whereas Sergio is nearing 40 and is considered to have slipped a couple of notches due to his advanced age and his injury problems with his knees and hands.
Cotto stopped fringe contender Delvin Rodriguez in the 3rd round last month. Trained by his new trainer Freddie Roach, Cotto chopped Rodriguez down to get a quick stoppage. However, this is an opponent that Cotto would have knocked out even if he had trained himself. Rodriguez had already been beaten by many other fighters, and Cotto beating him didn’t prove anything.
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