Cotto could fight in May, says Penagaricano

By Boxing News - 02/11/2015 - Comments

cotto453443By Dan Ambrose: Gaby Penagaricano, the adviser for WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, says the Puerto Rican fighter could wind up fighting in May possibly.

It’s a potentially crowded month with Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Maweather Jr, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez all planning in fighting this month. But the 34-year-old Cotto could still wind up seeing action during the month against one of three potential opponents they’re currently looking at.

Tim Bradley’s name has been mentioned as a potential opponent for Cotto in a fight that would likely take place at a catch-weight of 155 pounds.

It would obviously be troubling if Cotto were to defend his title against a small welterweight like Bradley at a catch-weight, given that Cotto won the WBC belt at a catch-weight against an old and hobbled Sergio Martinez instead of against the fighter considered to be the best in the division in Gennady Golovkin.

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Many boxing fans expect Cotto to take a soft opponent before vacating his title later this year rather than defending it against Golovkin and risking a potential knockout loss.

“I think Miguel shall fight in May or June,” Pengaricanlo said via Univision Deportes. “Yes, we are on schedule for May. We know that they are planning giant fights that date. But we still have time for that date. I would not want to enter any names. We are working with several names,” Penagaricano said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggV9GIM6f2U

June would obviously be the better time for Cotto to be fighting because he could fight on the weekend of the Puerto Rican day parade, and that would be a much bigger deal than if he were to try and fight during the very crowded May.

If Mayweather and Pacquiao don’t face each other on May 2nd, then we could be looking at Mayweather fighting on the 2nd, Canelo facing James Kirkland on May 9th, and Pacquiao fighting on May 30th.

The Pacquiao and Mayweather fights would both be on pay-per-view. So if Cotto fights on pay-per-view on HBO, and that would be three pay-per-view bouts in the month of May. That’s a potential increase of $200 in pay-per-view costs for the month of May, which would be on top of the normal cable bills for boxing fans.

I’m not sure that too many fans would be willing to swallow an additional $200 in cable bills for one month, especially if all three of the separate fights are largely mismatches. If Cotto faces Bradley on HBO pay-per-view, it’s likely to be a horrible mismatch with fans paying to see Cotto destroy the much smaller and weaker Bradley.

Likewise, if Mayweather and Pacquiao fail to fight each other in May, we could see Pacquiao fighting the light hitting WBA light welterweight champion Jessie Vargas. I personally don’t rate the Pacquiao-Vargas fight as worthy of being on pay-per-view. It’s HBO worthy, but just barely. I see that mismatch along the same lines as Pacquiao’s past fight against Brandon Rios. It’s not a good fight.

Cotto is at the point in his career where he just wants to take big fights for good money on pay-per-view. However, it’s unlikely that he’ll be taking any risky fights where he faces a potential beat down like he could be getting in a fight against Golovkin.



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