By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) appears to be tiring from the constant barrage of questions about when and if he’ll be fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Instead of fans wanting to know about Cotto’s next fight against Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) on June 6th, Cotto has been busy fielding questions about Canelo and a lot about Gennady Golovkin.
Cotto wants the media to know that he’s only focused on the Geale fight, and after that contest is past, then he’ll focus on his next fight. But whether Cotto wants to acknowledge it or not, Canelo does appear to be the next fight for him.
There’s just no way that Cotto can avoid that fight unless he wants to fall on his sword right now and get it over with by taking the Golovkin fight first, which figures to be a lot tougher fight for Cotto compared to Canelo.
“The only thing I have in mind is Daniel Geale. If that fight (against Alvarez) happens, it would be after June 6,” Cotto said to Primerahora.com. “No need to say anything more about it,” Cotto said.
Cotto appears to be getting testy about the questions about his next opponent rather than his fight against Geale. Cotto should take that as a big hint that fans aren’t too enamored with his choice of opponent by him selecting Geale rather than the fighters that fans want to see him facing.
Geale is a good fighter, there’s no question, but the fans in the United States already saw him get beaten last year by Golovkin in three rounds. U.S fans also saw Geale get beaten by Darren Barker in 2013.
Geale has lost two out of his last four fights, and you can’t hardly say he rates a world title shot. The guy that Geale beat in his last fight was Jarrod Fletcher last December. This is the same fighter that Daniel Jacobs easily beat last year. It just looks really bad when Cotto scraps the bottom of the barrel when looking for opponents to defend his title against. If he wanted to keep people from giving him heat and not showing interest in talking about his opponent, then he should have selected Tureano Johnson, Billy Joe Saunders or Jorge Sebastian Heiland. Fans would have been interested in Cotto fighting one of those guys because they’re top three contenders, and they would arguably have a better chance of beating him than Geale.
The catch-weight of 157 pounds for the Geale fight is another thing that has led to boxing fans not being interested in the fight too much because it kind of cheapens the fight when a world champion uses a catch-weight to defend his title with instead of fighting at the full weight for the division.
Cotto and Canelo attempted to negotiate a fight this year, but when it became clear that the fight wasn’t going to happen, Canelo moved on and instead faced James Kirkland in his own special weight of 155 that Canelo likes to fight at.
“I will not fight to lose, but leave a mark,” Geale said via Primerahora.com. “To be honest, I do not mind that you are talking about a possible fight between Cotto and Alvarez. In the past have looked beyond and I ruin my plans. I am confident in training and believe in me.”
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