WBC president: The winner of Cotto’s next fight will face Golovkin

By Boxing News - 02/28/2015 - Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jJiZZpaV4w
By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Council president Mauricio Suliaman says that the winner of WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s next fight will be required to face WBC Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) later this year.

Cotto, 34, has a voluntary defense coming up in May or June against a likely welterweight like Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios. After that fight, Cotto or whoever emerges as the winner of that fight will have to face the music of taking on the hard hitting Golovkin in a mandatory defense of the WBC 160 pound title.

“Miguel Cotto will have a voluntary defense. He will choose his rival. But the winner will have to face Golovkin” Mauricio said via WBCboxing.com.

We could see a very definite scenario where the winner of Cotto’s next voluntary defense will likely vacate the WBC middleweight title no matter who emerges as the winner of that fight.

You can’t expect Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios to take on Golovkin, because not only would they lose, they could wind up getting seriously hurt. Rios is like a punching bag when he takes on live opponents, and he doesn’t seem to know when to quit. If Rios refuses to quit on his stool, or if he trainer Robert Garcia doesn’t throw in the towel to save him, he could get brutally beaten by Golovkin.

As for Cotto, I don’t expect him to take the Golovkin fight at all period, so it’s not even really an issue with him. He’s likely to vacate his title rather than take on Golovkin and take a beating from him. But someone like Rios, if he gets past Cotto, would likely take the Golovkin fight with the attitude that he wouldn’t want to just give up his title by vacating it rather than going out on his shield.

Cotto’s defense will likely take place in New York in June in order to take advantage of his large fan base in that area, and also to take advantage of the Puerto Rican day parade weekend. It’s been an entire year since Cotto last fought when he beat past his prime 39-year-old Sergio Martinez last year in June.

Golovkin is coming off an 11th round TKO victory last Saturday night against #1 WBC Martin Murray in Monte Carlos. While a lot has been said about Murray being able to make it to the 11th round, you have to remember that Murray was running and holding the entire fight. Had Murray stood and traded with Golovkin for the entire fight, we probably would have seen Murray get knocked out in the first four rounds.

Cotto’s voluntary defense of his WBC title is rumored to be taking place at a catch-weight of 155 pounds rather than the full 160 pound limit for the fight. Cotto would be doing this in order to accommodate whichever welterweight he drags up to the middleweight division in order to defend the title.

It would be great if Cotto were to face Golovkin, because it would be an excellent fight and it would likely drum up a lot of fan interest around the United States. But Cotto seems to be more intent on finishing his career with victories without putting himself at risk of taking a beating and getting knocked out again.



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