By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4-32 KO’s) will be back in the ring to defend his WBC title in December, according to his promoter Bob Arum. There are two dates that Arum is looking at for Cotto to fight with him either fighting on 12/6 or 12/13 at Madison Square Garden in New York or Las Vegas, Nevada. The venue depends on who Cotto faces. If he faces a Mexican fighter, then he’ll be fighting in Las Vegas, says Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.
The possible opponents are Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Gennady Golovkin. It’s unclear how serious Arum is about Golovkin among the names for Cotto. A fight between Cotto and Golovkin would be a big fight, to be sure. It would likely be at least as big as Cotto-Martinez, if not bigger.
It would also give Cotto a chance to prove that he’s a legitimate champion and not a paper title holder given that he beat an old and injury-plagued Sergio Martinez last Saturday night. Golovkin is the opposite of Sergio Martinez in every area of his game. He’s not old, not injured and he’s not someone that makes a lot of tactical mistakes the way that Martinez did last Saturday night.
It goes without saying that Canelo and Mayweather would have to be viewed as the two top choices for Cotto’s next fight. Canelo already has said that he wants the Cotto fight, and the only thing that preventing it would be Canelo needing to get passed Erislandy Lara on July 12th, and then more importantly the obstacles between the two fighters being on different cable networks. Cotto fights on HBO, while Canelo on Showtime. If both fighters are under contract with those two separate networks, then it’s highly unlikely that the two fighters will be able to face each other in 2014.
Mayweather would have the same problem that Canelo would with the networks getting in the way of a fight against Cotto. Mayweather fights on Showtime, and he’s under contract with them until the end of 2015.
It would seem that Golovkin is Cotto’s best option for a fight in December, if Arum is willing to put him in with the dangerous fighter. This would be real test of Arum’s belief in Cotto. If he thinks he’s for real then he’ll let him fight Golovkin. But if he doubts his ability, then we’ll see Cotto fighting the most popular available contender at 160 or 154.
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