Will Miguel Cotto hurt his legacy if he faces Tim Bradley instead of Golovkin?

By Boxing News - 02/15/2015 - Comments

cotto56678By Dan Ambrose: There’s been talk that WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) is considering a fight against former two division world champion Tim Bradley (31-1-1, 12 KOs) in his first and likely only title defense of his WBC 150.

The Cotto-Bradley fight is being talked about for New York in May or June. Cotto is also a backup possibility for Floyd Mayweather Jr if his negotiations with Manny Pacquiao don’t work out. However, the odds are that Mayweather and Pacquiao will wind up facing each other on May 2nd.

Instead of Cotto fighting the likes of Bradley, who fights in the welterweight division, boxing fans want to see Cotto fight the likes of WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. These are fighters that weigh about the same as Cotto, and they’re able to fight him at middleweight without being at a huge size and power disadvantage like Bradley or whichever other welterweight that Cotto drags up to the middleweight division for him to fight.

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Cotto had a chance to fight Canelo, but their negotiations fell through when Cotto reportedly missed a number of deadlines that Golden Boy Promotions had set. As for Golovkin, Cotto and his trainer Freddie Roach have shown little interest in wanting to face him.

Roach’s rationale for the fight not taking place is that he rarely sees Golovkin on television, and he says he’s not a pay-per-view fighter. But that argument falls apart when you see the guys that Cotto has been fighting lately in Sergio Martinez and Delvin Rodriguez, neither of which are pay-per-view fighters.

Bradley isn’t a PPV fighter either, although he’s been an opponent for Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in PPV fights. Bradley isn’t a PPV fighter where he’s the A-side, so he’s in the same boat as Golovkin.

The Cotto-Bradley fight, if it takes place, it’ll likely be at a catch-weight of 155 pounds in order to make it easier for Bradley. He’ll be giving up weight and a lot of power. However, as the holder of the WBC 160 pound title, Cotto would be doing a disservice to the World Boxing Council in the eyes of some fans by him choosing to fight a welterweight in Bradley and by fighting in another catch-weight fight.

Cotto’s last fight against Sergio Martinez was also at a catch-weight. The argument is that champions that fight at catch-weights over and over again instead of at the full weight for the division, they somehow cheapen the title with the handicap weights, according to some fans.

The fans that are unhappy about the idea of Cotto fighting Bradley are hardcore boxing fans. Cotto and his management would likely be making the Bradley fight in hopes of luring casual fans to purchase the fight.

Casual boxing fans have only scant knowledge about weight divisions, and who fights at what weight. They in turn probably wouldn’t know that Bradley fights in the welterweight division and Cotto at middleweight.

These same fans likely won’t care that Cotto is fighting a guy that is smaller and weaker than him in Bradley. The fans just want to see a good fight, even if it has a brutal ending with Bradley getting knocked out.

Cotto’s fans feel that he should be able to face whoever he wants to because of the great fights he’s had during his career. But there are other fans who believe that Cotto should vacate his title if he’s just going to milk his title by fighting beatable guys at the lower weights rather than the best middleweights in the division. They don’t want to watch a champion take safe fights after he picked up the WBC title by beating an old and hobbled Sergio Martinez.



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