By Dan Ambrose: In a clear sign that he likely won’t be fighting WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) anytime soon, WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) says that his career doesn’t depend on a fight against Golovkin, and that he’s going to have to wait like other fighters do for a chance at fighting him.
In the meantime, Cotto says he’s going to do what’s good for Miguel Cotto, and that he’ll be looking to get the biggest names for his next fight on June 6th. The name that has been mentioned as the leading candidate for Cotto’s next fight is 41-year-old Cornelius Bundrage, who is not exactly a big name in the U.S or in the boxing world.
If this is the big name that Cotto is going to select for his next fight, then it makes you wonder what his priorities are at this point in his career. If he turns down a fight against Golovkin for a fight against Bundrage then it’s going to give boxing fans an indication that Cotto is looking to take it easy in the last part of his career.
“He [Golovkin] has to wait like anybody else,” Cotto told ESPN.com. “He can do whatever he wants. My career does not depend on Gennady Golovkin. Everything I do will be the best for me. That is what I will do. If that is fighting Gennady Golovkin, I will do it. If not, he can take the middleweight title. He can take it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh0TvH0yAuQ
Well, Golovkin is probably going to take Cotto’s WBC 160 pound whether Cotto faces him or not. There’s really no mystery about it. The only thing fans don’t know is if Golovkin will be fighting Cotto for the WBC title or not. That’s obviously up to Cotto. If he chooses not to fight Golovkin, then he’ll either have to vacate the WBC title or it’ll be stripped from him by the WBC for failing to face his mandatory.
The WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman already said that Cotto and Golovkin have to fight each other after Cotto’s next fight. Cotto will likely win his next fight depending on who he faces, and then he’ll have to decide on whether he should vacate his WBC title or go ahead and fight Golovkin and take a potential beating like he did in his loss to Antonio Margarito in 2008.
“I’m ready for any big name in boxing. We’re going to get the biggest name for us in June,” Cotto said via ESPN. “If it’s going to be Amir Khan, then we’re going to be ready for him too.”
The only reason Cotto mentioned Khan’s name was because he was asked by the interviewer whether he would be potentially facing Khan in June. However, a fight between Cotto and Khan is not going to happen in June, and likely never. Khan is managed by Al Haymon, while Cotto just finished signing a multi-fight, multi-year deal with Roc Nation Sports. Haymon and Roc Nation don’t do business with one another, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Cotto’s next opponent will be from one of the following names: Bundrage, Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios.
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