By Dan Ambrose: Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto’s June 18 date on HBO pay-per-view is reportedly a no go after his promoters at Roc Nation Sports were unable to find a big enough name for him to fight on pay-per-view. The candidates for Cotto’s fight on that date, Diego Chaves and James Kirkland, just were not nearly big enough names for the fight to be on HBO PPV.
Those are the type of guys that would be good for Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) to fight on regular HBO, albeit in an undercard fight rather than in a main event. Cotto now will be waiting until the fall to fight, according to ESPN. It’s possible that Cotto could fight WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez if the Mexican fighter chooses not to face unbeaten Gennady Golovkin, which is starting to look likely. Canelo is in favor of giving Cotto a rematch, and that isn’t surprising. It gives Canelo an excuse not to have to fight Golovkin.
Cotto lost to Canelo by a 12 round decision last November in a close fight on HBO PPV. However, the fight brought in a ton of PPV buys on HBO in bringing in 900,000 buys. It’s doubtful that the fans would be too eager to pay to see a second fight between the two fighters, especially with Cotto having done nothing since the loss. But there will be a certain amount of fans willing to pay to see a second fight between them. It’s possible that the fight could bring in half the amount of buys as the first fight. That’s 450,000 buys. HBO and Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions would likely jump at the chance to put on a fight that brings in 450K buys on PPV.
“I talked to Bryan and he told me they are going to push Miguel’s fight back to the fall,” Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach said to ESPN.com about talking to Cotto’s manager Bryan Perez. “But they want me to come to Puerto Rico and work with him for a couple of weeks, and we’re working on the dates now. They don’t know the date of the fall fight, but we’re going to do a two-week minicamp in Puerto Rico sometime next month just to get him on the right path, work with him on a few things.”
Besides a rematch with Canelo being possible for the fall, Cotto could fight the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez, Tim Bradley, Kell Brook and Manny Pacquiao. Marquez, 42, still hasn’t fought since his win over Mike Alvarado two years ago in 2014, and it’s questionable whether Marquez will be fighting in 2016. If he does fight, it would be a tough match to face a guy as big as Cotto after nearly two and a half years out of the ring. It wouldn’t be sporting for the smaller, older and ring rusty Marquez to be fighting someone like Cotto. But given that Cotto’s promoters were looking at matching him against Kirkland and Diego Chaves, it’s not surprising that Marquez is an option.
Pacquiao retired after his win over Tim Bradley last Saturday night in Las Vegas. It’s doubtful that Pacquiao would want to make a comeback to fight Cotto with him coming off of a loss to Canelo. If Pacquiao is going to resume his career and fight someone bigger than himself, he’d be much better off facing Canelo.
That’s the far bigger money fight for Pacquiao than fighting an older guy that is down on his luck like Cotto. Pacquiao beat Cotto by a 12th round knockout seven years ago in 2009. A rematch between them should have taken place years ago rather than now with Pacquiao retired from the sport.
Cotto’s best option for a big money fight would be against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. However, Brook has two voluntary defenses of his IBF 147lb title. The International Boxing Federation might not like the idea of Brook moving up to 150 to fight Cotto at a catch-weight. That’s likely as low as Cotto can go to take a fight against a welterweight. He’s not going to drain down to 147 to fight Brook, because it’s been many years since Cotto fought at welterweight. The last time Cotto fought at welterweight was his fight against Pacquiao in 2009. At this point, I think it would be very difficult for Cotto to get down to 150.