By Dan Ambrose: The negotiations have been undercard between the promoters for WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and thus far they’ve narrowed down two dates – November 21st or November 28th – for their mega-bout to take place on HBO pay-per-view, according to ESPN Deportes.
Canelo, 24, was hoping that the fight with Cotto would take place on September 12th, the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend, but it looks like Canelo won’t be getting his way.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fighting on September 12th, and there’s no way that the pay-per-view big wigs are going to let the young Canelo try and compete with Mayweather for that date. It wasn’t a good date also because Cotto recently fought Daniel Geale this month. If Cotto had agreed to fight Canelo on September 12th, it would have meant that Cotto would have had to get back in the gym to start training immediately in order to be ready for that fight. There wouldn’t have any down time for Cotto to rest and recover from the Geale fight.
The venue for the fight is still being worked through, but they’re looking at either Las Vegas, Nevada, or New York. It’s likely that Cotto is pulling for the fight to take place in New York, as that’s where many of his Puerto Rican fans are located. If the fight is staged in New York, Cotto would have a huge advantage in terms of the fans that show up for the fight. If the fight is staged in Las Vegas, then Canelo will have the crowd in his control because he’s popular in Vegas.
There had been talk of the fight possibly taking place in Texas, but that doesn’t seem likely. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions was talking about wanting to stage the fight in Texas, but it appears that’s not going to be an option. You could understand why Cotto wouldn’t want to fight in Texas.
It would be a crowd that would likely be 99 percent Canelo fans and only 1 percent for Cotto. It’s surprising that De La Hoya didn’t realize from the start that his idea of having the fight take place in Texas wouldn’t fly with Cotto and his promoters at Roc Nation Sports.
The negotiations are reportedly moving along quickly compared to the last time the two fighters attempted to negotiate the fight. The venues and fight date are obviously small things compared to the purse split. That’s where the two sides are going to need to come to an agreement. If Canelo expects to get a 50-50 deal with Cotto in terms of the money, he’s probably going to be barking up the wrong tree. Canelo isn’t going to get a deal like that, and he’ll likely have to be satisfied with something along the lines of a 60-40 cut of the money, if that.
It’s unclear whether Cotto’s WBC middleweight title will be on the line for the fight. However, World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman is on board with the Cotto-Canelo fight being for Cotto’s WBC middleweight title. Cotto is willing to fight Canelo at a catch-weight of 155 pounds, which would be well under the 160 pound upper limit for the middleweight division. For Cotto, it would his third straight catch-weight fight.
Cotto won the WBC title with a catch-weight fight against Sergio Martinez, and then defended it at a catch-weight of 157 pounds against Geale. Canelo is no stranger to catch-weights himself.
This would be Canelo’s fourth straight catch-weight fight. Between Canelo and Cotto, they’ve become strong catch-weight fighters. It’s going to be interesting to see how far into the future the two fighters continue with their catch-weight fights.
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