By Chester Rivers: This time Bob Arum and the Top Rank match making team has gone too far. Timothy Bradley has emerged as the front runner to challenged Miguel Cotto for the lineal middleweight championship of the world in December 2014.
If this fight takes place it will be the most disgraceful title bout in the history of boxing.
First off, neither man has ever fought at the middleweight limit of 160 lbs. Cotto won the title at a catch weight of 159 and now this fight will be fought even lower at 156 lbs. Cotto put on a masterful performance against Sergio Martinez and looked as though he could carry his own against some of the middleweight division “B” level fighters.
Let’s be honest, who would pick Cotto to win against Gennady Golovkin, Julio Caesar Chavez Jr, Peter Quillen or Andy Lee. There are some legitimate middleweights like Matthew Macklin and the recently retired Darren Barker that Arum could have chosen besides Timothy Bradley who weighed in at 145 lbs for his last fight.
Top Rank has a track record of keeping all monies and titles in-house by pitting Top Rank signed fighters against one another. Anyone remember Manny Pacquiao mockery of the junior middleweight title fought at a catch weight of 150 pounds against an opponent, Antonio Margarito, who only had 2 fights in his entire career officially at 154 pounds. To Manny’s credit he never defended the bogus title.
The middleweight title is the second most coveted title in boxing behind the heavyweight championship. Miguel Cotto is not some alphabet belt holder in the division but the recognized champion. I understand that Cotto is naturally smaller than the rest of the middleweights but like I said before the middleweight title is one of the most coveted titles. If Cotto is unwilling to defend his belt against legitimate contenders then he should honor the title by vacating. He has done enough in the sport to the point where his name will carry events and not the belt around his waist.
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