Golovkin wants Cotto after Monroe fight

By Boxing News - 03/22/2015 - Comments

golovkin42222By Dan Ambrose: After his win over Marco Antonio Rubio last year in October 2014, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) became the WBC mandatory challenger for Miguel Cotto. Golovkin is hoping he can get the fight against Cotto next after his bout against Willie Monroe Jr (19-1, 6 KOs) on May 16th at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

Golovkin doesn’t want to sell any of his opponents short, especially one with such a different style as Monroe brings to the table. However, Golovkin’s focus is on the Cotto fight, or at least fighting for the WBC middleweight title if Cotto decides to vacate the WBC title or have it stripped from him by the WBC.

The belt will be stripped from Cotto at some point by the WBC if he refuses to defend it against his mandatory challenger Golovkin. The only question is when the WBC will do it if Cotto doesn’t agree to fight Golokvin after his next voluntary defense on June 6th. Cotto is rumored to be facing 41-year-old Cornelius Bundrage on HBO pay-per-view on June 6th.

“My focus is on WBC belt,” Golovkin said via Behindthegloves.com. When asked if he thinks the Cotto fight will take place this year, Golovkin said “I hope so.”

We really don’t know whether Golovkin will ever get a shot at the WBC title this year. It really depends on whether the WBC is going to do their job and strip Cotto if he chooses to not fight Golovkin after his next title defense. The WBC would be the one that would have to make the move to take it off of Cotto if he decides that he wants to defend it over and over again against whoever he wants to. If Cotto does that, it would make a mockery of the WBC 160 pound title, because it would put him in control, not the WBC.

A fight between Golovkin and Cotto would be a good one if it were to take place, but it doesn’t look like it’s in the cards right now. After Cotto’s next fight against Bundrage, or whoever, he’ll likely be looking to get a fight against one of the following fighters: Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. I think Mayweather and Pacquiao will be Cotto’s top two choices followed by Canelo.

If the WBC doesn’t strip Cotto of his WBC middleweight title, then that would be a further lure to get Mayweather or Pacquiao to fight him, because he could put his WBC 160 pound title up for grabs. Pacquiao would then have the chance of capturing his 9th division world title, and Mayweather his 6th division world title. If those fights are available for Cotto later on this year, I really don’t see the WBC stripping Cotto of the WBC title. I think they would let Cotto hold onto the belt for one or both of those fights.

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Golovkin might have to wait until the smoke clears before he could eventually get a shot at the WBC belt. I don’t think for a second that Mayweather or Pacquiao would agree to fight Golovkin for the WBC title even if they defeated Cotto to win the belt.

It is one thing for Pacquiao and Mayweather to defeat the 5’7” Cotto to win the WBC middleweight title, but it’s a much different thing for either of them to face a bigger, stronger and arguably more talented fighter like Golovkin at middleweight. It would be a dangerous fight for either of them, because Golovkin cuts off the ring well, and he has KO power with every punch he throws. It would be a punishing fight for Mayweather or Pacquiao.



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