Canelo has trump card if Cotto makes negotiations difficult, Chavez Jr could replace him

By Boxing News - 10/15/2014 - Comments

chavez676By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) is hoping that a fight between him and World Boxing Council middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) can be negotiated for Cinco de Mayo next May in 2015.

It’s not going to be easy for Team Canelo to try and put a fight together against the 33-year-old Cotto, because the chances are high that Cotto will want to be the A-side in the negotiations.

Canelo has an ace up his sleeve if Cotto makes it too difficult in the negotiations. Canelo has former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (48-1-1, 32 KOs), who is very interested in facing Canelo next. Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya is also open to making a Canelo-Chavez Jr fight next May if he can’t get the Canelo-Cotto fight negotiated.

A fight between Canelo and Chavez Jr might end up being a bigger fight than the Canelo-Cotto fight due to the combination of Chavez Jr and Canelo’s popularity in the Mexican community in the United States.

Cotto has a done a good job of turning his sinking career around recently with his two wins over aging ring veterans Delvin Rodriguez and Sergio Martinez, but there are still a lot of boxing fans who feel that Cotto has seen better days. He hasn’t convinced a lot of fans that he’s any better than the fighter that Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr both defeated in 2012.

If Cotto proves to be too difficult to deal with in the negotiations then don’t be surprised to see Canelo and Golden Boy back out and pull Chavez Jr out of their back pockets to go with that fight instead. Cotto might have a change of mind if he sees Canelo going with the Chavez Jr fight, but then it’ll likely be too late at that point.

Cotto doesn’t have a lot of options other than Canelo for big money fights unless Floyd Mayweather Jr wants to fight him again. Other than that fight, Cotto will be stuck with the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Marco Antonio Rubio, Peter Quillin or Daniel Jacobs. Manny Pacquiao is also a possibility if Cotto is willing to drain down to 150 to fight him at a catch-weight. I doubt Cotto will ever agree to another catch-weight fight with Pacquiao after agreeing to one in 2009.



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