Cotto’s adviser says Cotto-Golovkin fight possible in the future

By Boxing News - 02/23/2015 - Comments

1-IMG_7290 - copia(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Dan Ambrose: Gaby Penagaricano, the adviser for WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs), says that a fight between Cotto and WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) is possible in the future at some point and time.

Gaby Penagaricano doesn’t appear to be interested in making that fight for May, which is when Golovkin plans on fighting again. Golovkin destroyed Cotto’s #1 WBC contender last Saturday night in stopping him in the 11th round.

It was such an easy fight for Golovkin that he plans on returning to the ring on May 16th on HBO Championship Boxing against an opponent still to be determined. Golovkin, his promoter Tom Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez all were hoping that Cotto would take a step up in class and face him on the May 16th date or even in June.

“Everybody likes to call out the big names!” Penagaricano said via RingTV.com. “But of course it is possible for the future. We’ll see down the road.”

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If Cotto doesn’t face Golovkin, then Cotto is expected to fight a welterweight like Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley in a fight that will likely take place in New York. Rios and Bradley don’t have a lot of fans in the New York area, unlikely Golovkin.

If Cotto wants to maximize the amount of tickets he sells and increase his pay-per-view numbers and/or ratings on HBO, then he needs to fight a guy like Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Fighting Bradley or Rios will only bring risk to Cotto without the fight bringing in a lot of money on pay-per-view or huge ratings.

“Cotto has no opponent for his next fight,” Sanchez said via RingTV.com. “New York would be great this summer for a showdown for the WBC belt, and to see who is the best middleweight in the world.”

It would be disappointing if Cotto chooses to fight a welterweight in his title defense of his WBC 160 pound title rather than a middleweight. Unless Cotto is going to be matched carefully against only weak guys that are beatable, he’s going to get beaten by someone sooner or later.

Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach is helping pick opponents for him at this point in his career, and Roach has carefully selected Delvin Rodriguez and Sergio Martinez in his last two fights. Roach says that Martinez was still in his prime of his career and fighting at a high level.

The only reason he looked so bad was because of Cotto’s game plan being so good. I don’t too many boxing fans that would agree with that. If Roach is going to be the one carefully picking out Cotto’s opposition like a mother hen, it’s quite possible that Cotto will never get around to facing Golovkin before he retires from boxing.

Penagaricano says that “everybody likes to call out the big names” in response to Golovkin being interested in fighting Cotto, but you can make a strong argument that Golovkin is already a big name in the United States.

If Penagaricano can’t see that then it’s really disappointing, because Golovkin is picking up more and more fans in the U.S with every fight. He’s now considered a big name in his own right, and he’s clearly a much more popular fighter than Rios or Bradley. If Cotto opts to face one of those guys instead of Golovkin, it’s going to look bad.



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