Canelo agrees to terms for Cotto fight on May 2nd on HBO

By Boxing News - 12/09/2014 - Comments

canelo035By Allan Fox: Mexican super star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) has reportedly agreed to fight terms for a May 2nd mega-fight against WBC middleweight title holder Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view from either Texas or Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 34-year-old Cotto still hasn’t worked out his side of the negotiations, but he’s expected to.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was instrumental in helping with the negotiating when there was an impasse, according to RingTV. The main guys that have been working with Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya is Top Rank President Todd DuBoef and Gaby Penagaricano, the legal adviser for Cotto.

With Canelo having agreed to terms and Cotto likely to agree as well, it puts a lot of pressure on Floyd Mayweather Jr to make a decision about whether he’s going to fight on the same date on May 2nd or move off the date.

If Mayweather does decide on fighting on the same date then it’s going to be imperative that he fights a huge star like Manny Pacquiao.

Fighting Amir Khan or Devon Alexander aren’t going to big enough names for Mayweather to make his fight a success. He needs a really big name like Pacquiao or possibly Gennady Golovkin if he wants to ensure that his fight doesn’t bring in low pay-per-view totals.

“My side is done and dealt with. We have agreed. So now, I’m waiting on Bob to get their side done,” said De La Hoya said to RingTV.com. “I have no doubt in my mind that we will get Canelo-Cotto done for the May 2 of next year.”

While New York is a distinct possibility for the fight due to Cotto’s popularity in the area, Texas [San Antonio and Dallas] and Las Vegas are the leading cites where the fight will wind up taking place.

Cotto is coming off of an impressive 10th round stoppage win over Sergio Martinez last June. Cotto overpowered the 39-year-old Martinez in dropping him three times in the 1st round, and hurting him to the point where he needed a nine count in the 9th round.

Canelo was less impressive in his last fight in beating Erislandy Lara by a 12 round split decision. Canelo still got the win, but he showed a lot of the same flaws against Lara that he did in his loss to Mayweather last year. Luckily for Canelo, Cotto doesn’t have the same hand speed and defensive ability that Lara and Mayweather both possess. But Cotto is far more dangerous than either of those fighters in terms of his punching power.



Comments are closed.