By Dan Ambrose: #8 WBO, #9 WBA, #12 IBF former world title challenger Andy Lee (33-2, 23 KOs) is being mentioned as a possible opponent for WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s next fight on December 13th fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Steve Kim.
Cotto’s next fight won’t be on HBO pay-per-view. Instead, it’s going to be on regular HBO, which is a pretty good indication that Cotto will be fighting Lee or some other non-star.
Fighting Lee isn’t going to help Cotto’s case in trying to show that he’s the best middleweight in the division. With Gennady Golovkin willing to fight anybody in the division, it’s going to make Cotto look kind of bad if he faces Andy Lee, because it’s going to look like Cotto or his management have doubts about whether he’s good enough to beat a high quality top 5 contender at 160. Lee isn’t ranked in the top 5.
As long as Cotto doesn’t care that this fight is going to make more fans believe that he’s a paper champion, then it’s a decent fight. It would obviously be better for Cotto to take on a stiffer test for his next fight like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, but that’s a fight that Cotto probably can’t win.
Lee, 30, is coming off of a recent 5th round career-saving win over Julian Jackson’s hard hitting son John Jackson last June. Lee was dominated by Jackson in every second of the fight until nailing him with a big shot to the head that knocked him out in the 5th round.
Steve Kim said on his twitter “A name being mentioned for Cotto on that date is Andy Lee for Dec 13. Bob Arum tells me that as of “right now”, Miguel Cottos bout on Dec 13th bout at MSG will not be on PPV.”
Given that Cotto is really basically just a junior middleweight, Lee is a good opponent for his December 13th fight. You can’t expect Cotto to fight a strong middleweight when he’s got a likely big money fight coming up next year in May against former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Arum isn’t going to risk that big money payday by putting Cotto in with someone with a decent chance of beating him like Marco Antonio Rubio or Martin Murray.
At this point, even Lee could be a dangerous fight for Cotto because Lee can punch, he’s tall, and he fights out of a southpaw stance. If Lee is able to use his legs to move around the ring, he could jab his way to a victory over Cotto. Lee’s chin is suspect though, and it’s possible that Cotto could stop him by the middle rounds.
Lee has never been stopped before the 7th round, so this could potentially be a tough fight for Cotto. If Lee is able to nail Cotto with his power shots for 6-7 rounds, Cotto could take a minor beating in this fight. Lee is definitely better than Delvin Rodriguez, and he has a lot more left in the tank than Sergio Martinez showed in his recent loss to Cotto.
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