By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach still isn’t willing to display his cards about how he plans on telling his fighter WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) to fight next in December. Roach went on a scouting run last night at Madison Square Garden in New York to watch WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s fight against Daniel Geale.
Roach had seen Golovkin on video, but he wanted to see him live in order to get a better estimation of his power and to hear the sound of his punches.
Roach had previously mentioned Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s name as a potential opponent for Cotto to fight in December, but a new name is former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He hadn’t been talking about the much, much bigger Chavez Jr as a potential opponent for Cotto, perhaps due to Chavez Jr’s 6’1”, 190+ frame.
A fight between him and Cotto would be a farce due to Chavez Jr’s size. Cotto rehydrated to less than 160 pounds for his recent fight against former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. There’s no way you can have the 160 pound Cotto stepping into the ring against a guy weighing in the 190s like Chavez Jr if they were to face each other.
The only way the fight works is if Chavez Jr melts down to 160 for the fight, which is highly doubtful, and then there’s a rehydration limit to keep Chavez Jr from rehydrating past a certain weight. In other words, Cotto and Roach would likely need a huge handicap in order for Cotto to have a chance of beating Chavez Jr, because without a handicap, Cotto is going to game mowed down by the bigger Chavez Jr.
Cotto won’t be able to stop Chavez Jr, because of how good his chin in. That means that Cotto would have to take head and body shots from a much bigger Chavez Jr for 12 rounds. We’re probably talking Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito I type of scenario with Chavez Jr taking punishment for 5-6 rounds, but then wearing Cotto down with his size and stopping him. Cotto is too old to move for 12 rounds, and I doubt he could even do it for 3-4 without severely gassing out.
“You have Triple G [Golovkin], Chavez, and you have Canelo,” Roach said to esnewsreporting.com in talking about who will be Cotto’s next opponent in December. Nothing is really definite. They’re [Cotto and his adviser Gabriel Penagaricano] going to ask me who I like. Me and Miguel will talk it over how we’re going to fight that particular person.”
Cotto won’t fight Canelo in December, because Bob Arum wants that fight for next year in May, and the same with Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. Fighting Chavez Jr will be a nightmare, as I said, because of the size differences between him and Cotto.
The best guy for Cotto to fight is Golovkin, but he’d have to be willing to look at the very real possibility that he’ll get obliterated by the Kazakhstan fighter.
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