De La Hoya: After Kirkland, we [Canelo] want Cotto and Mayweather

By Boxing News - 03/03/2015 - Comments

canelo8999By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya has already mapped out his flagship fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s next fight after the James Kirkland fight on May 9th. If Canelo defeats Kirkland, then De La Hoya wants to match Canelo against Miguel Cotto and then Floyd Mayweather Jr.

For a fight between Canelo and Cotto to take place it’s going to require for Canelo to agree to a smaller slice of the pie, because the negotiations stalled recently over the purse split when Cotto and Canelo attempted to put a fight together.

“After Kirkland, then Cotto then he will probably gain a lot more experience for a rematch with Mayweather, and would be more interesting. Canelo is here for the long haul,” De La Hoya said via ESPN Deportes.

De La Hoya shouldn’t be counting his chickens before they’re hatched. For all we know, Canelo might not even make it past Kirkland, let alone get past Cotto to get to Mayweather. But even if Canelo does defeat Kirkland on May 9th, it’s still going to prove next to impossible for the red-headed Canelo to get a fight between him and Cotto negotiated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyTuQFZ4yqc

For that fight to be signed, Canelo will need to be agreeable to taking a smaller purse split than the one he was asking for recently during their failed negotiations. It’s unclear what percentage of the purse split Canelo was asking for, but I wouldn’t be surprise if he was looking to get something in the neighborhood of a 55-45 split, with Cotto taking the slightly bigger split.

That’s a really high split for Canelo given that he’s not accomplished the same things that Cotto has with his career. Canelo’s biggest wins in his career are the controversial victories over Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. I don’t really see those as wins for Canelo, because I thought he lost both of those fights.

“We still want Canelo-Cotto because it will be a great battle,” said De La Hoya. “It’ll be great for the Mexican-Puerto Rico rivalry like Chavez-Rosario and Sanchez-Gomez. The fight between Canelo and Cotto has to happen because the public demands it.”

I don’t think the boxing public is really demanding the Canelo vs. Cotto fight nearly as much as the public is asking for Canelo vs. Gennady Golovkin or Cotto vs. Golovkin. Those are the fights fans want to see.

One of the problems that keeps the Cotto-Canelo fight from being a big deal is that Cotto still hasn’t proven that he’s the top middleweight in the division yet. A lot of boxing fans see Golovkin as the legitimate champion at 160; whereas Cotto is seen as a paper champion due to him only beating an over the hill 39-year-old Sergio Martinez, who was coming off of a 14-month layoff and two surgeries on his right knee.

If Cotto were to face Golovkin and defeat him, then a fight between Cotto and Canelo would definitely be a big deal. Of course, Canelo still has unfinished business with Trout, Lara and Mayweather that he needs to take care of.



Comments are closed.