Cotto says people will have to wait for Golovkin fight

By Boxing News - 06/02/2015 - Comments

cotto034444(Photo credit: Rich Kane – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation) By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) made it clear on Tuesday if fight fans want to see him fight WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) they’re going to have to wait until the right time in the future.

Just when the Cotto vs. Golovkin fight will take place is unclear, but Cotto himself will the one that makes that decision, not the boxing fans or Golovkin. Cotto will be fighting former IBF/WBA 160lb champion Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 kOs) this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

If Cotto wins that fight he’ll likely be facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez rather than Golovkin.

Cotto says that people had to wait five to six years for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight to take place, so they’ll just need to sit and wait for him to face the fighters like Golokvin. The problem with that is Cotto is 34 and Golovkin is 33. If they wait 5 to 6 years, they’ll both be near 40-years-old, and there’s no telling whether they’ll both age as well as Mayweather did. He’s a rare case.

Most fighters don’t age as well as him and fight at the same level. The chances are very high that if Cotto sits and waits for five to six years before he faces Golovkin, Cotto will be taking losses left and right to mediocre fighters, even if he’s matched as carefully as he’s been since his last defeat in 2012. Cotto hasn’t faced a good fighter that was still in his prime since his defeat to Austin Trout. Sergio Martinez was shot, and Delvin Rodriguez was just an ESPN guy who was never great to begin with.

“Every fight has its time. It happened with Mayweather-Manny, people waited four, five, six years for it to happen. People have to wait,” Cotto said via Thaboxingvoice.com. “People can ask for Golovkin or Canelo, whoever they want. But those fights are going to happen when they happen. I want to best for me, myself, my family in my boxing career.”

Cotto seems to be doing his best to sound mysterious and keep boxing fans from finding out when he’s going to pull the trigger on the Canelo and Golovkin fights. However, Cotto really doesn’t have a lot of time to waste before he has to break his streak of facing weak opposition and face someone that can potentially knock him out.

Cotto signed a 3-fight contract with Roc Nation for big money, and he’s burning up the first fight of the contract against Geale, which isn’t a big fight or a dangerous one for Cotto. I think Roc Nation is going to want a return on their investment in Cotto’s second fight. They’re not going to sit back happily and watch Cotto steer around Golovkin and Canelo to fight more fringe level contenders at catch-weights instead of at the full weight for the middleweight division. Cotto-Geale will be taking place at 157 rather than 160. Roc Nation is going to want to see Cotto face guys like Canelo and Golovkin. HBO is going to want those fights too. They agreed to show the Cotto vs. Geale fight, but I don’t think they’re going to give Cotto the green light to handpick another fringe contender while steering around Golovkin and Canelo.

Golovkin is Cotto’s mandatory, and Cotto will likely need to make a defense against him by next year or it’s likely that he’ll be stripped of his middleweight title by the WBC. They’re not going to sit back and listen to Cotto say he’ll fight whoever he wants indefinitely. If the WBC chooses not to enforce their own rules by having Cotto defend against his WBC mandatory, then it’ll reflect badly on the WBC for just letting him do this.

I think Cotto will wind up letting the Golovkin fight marinate too long, and by the time he does decide he wants to fight him, Golovkin will be the star and Cotto will be the washed up Sergio Martinez type fighter. Fans aren’t going to be too excited at seeing Golovkin finish off someone who is already over the hill. If Golovkin turned around and announced he was going to face Sergio Martinez now, few people would want to see it because Martinez is clearly past it. If Cotto waits too long for the Golovkin fight, he’s going to miss out on people wanting to actually see it. As it is, fans don’t know if Cotto has anything left in the tank because he was considered past it three years ago when he was beaten by Trout and Mayweather. The only thing that’s changed since then is Cotto has been given two soft touches in Delvin Rodriguez and Sergio Martinez. Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach has been bragging about how he’s turned Cotto’s career around by his game plans and by having him throw more left hooks. I don’t believe that for a second. I don’t think Cotto is even as good as he was in 2012. He’s older. The only thing that’s changed is he’s been matched up against weak/shot guys since his loss to Trout. Now he’s hoping to beat Geale, a fighter who was blown out in three rounds by Golovkin last year. Just why Cotto is fighting Geale is something only Cotto knows. I guess it’s good for his career.



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