By Dan Ambrose: Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) has now been out of the ring for the past seven months since his narrow 12 round decision loss to Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last November. Cotto, 35, still has no idea who he’ll be facing and he’ll be fighting next. A rematch against Canelo might be Cotto’s best option if he can get that fight. The Cotto-Canelo fight brought in 900,000 PPV buys on HBO. A second fight might bring in equally good numbers, although I tend to doubt it given the fact that Cotto hasn’t fought since.
Cotto had the chance to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook and WBO 154lb champ Liam Smith, but he failed to take those fights. One name that continues to be mentioned as a possibility for Cotto is the soon to be 43-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez, who hasn’t fought in two years.
In terms of being a competitive fight, it probably wouldn’t be. A fight between Marquez and Cotto could take place in October if the two can agree on a weight. Marquez is rumored to want a catch-weight of 149lbs. That’s not going to work for Cotto, who would need the fight to take place at 154. He’s probably too old to drain down to 149 without it weakening him in the process.
It would be one of those ‘business fights’ that we see in boxing rather than a made for the sake competition. Marquez is old, inactive, and has a knee problem that has caused him to miss the last two years. Marquez suffered a new injury recently, this one to an ankle. It’s unknown how long that injury will require healing.
“I have no idea [who I’m facing]. We are waiting to secure a good name and a good purse for the fight,” Cotto said to EL Vocera. “We are in no hurry at all. We are waiting for what is best for us. If there’s an opponent that can fulfill the requirements…I would fight at 154 pounds.”
Cotto has become a part-time boxer in the later stages of his career. Cotto missed a year of his career after beating Sergio Martinez in June 2014 to win the WBC middleweight title. Cotto also missed 10 months of action after his loss to Austin Trout in December 2012. Cotto didn’t fight again until October 201. Now it looks like Cotto could miss another year of his career if he stays out of the ring until October or later.
With the kind of time that Cotto has been missing lately, it’s no surprise that he lost to Canelo last November. What is surprising is that Cotto was so competitive in that fight. That might be more of a product of Canelo being a terribly flawed fighter than the fact that Cotto had lost so little from his game through inactivity.
Cotto is in a tough position in moving back down to 154. If he’s to be considered a relevant fighter in the division, then it means he must take on the best fighters like Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo and Erislandy Lara. fighting Liam Smith won’t get the job done for Cotto. He needs to fight the champions that are considered to be the best in the division, and that’s the Charlo brothers and Lara. If all Cotto is going to do is fight guys like Marquez, Brook or Smith, then he’ll be seen as someone that is just trying to scrape up fights against beatable opposition rather than taking on the best.
It would be interpreted by boxing fans as a cherry picking type of move. I don’t think there’s much interest from the boxing world in a Cotto vs. Marquez fight. It’s a match that would have been appealing many years ago when Cotto was still fighting at welterweight, but right now it would seem like a circus fight where Cotto picks a small old guy with a bad knee to fight rather than a healthy, young and relevant fighter like the Charlo brothers.
Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn said to skysports.com that Kell Brook “would walk to the US for a crack at Cotto.”
It doesn’t look like Cotto is interested in fighting Brook, which is too bad because that’s a fight that could take place at 154. Brook is like a junior middleweight at this point in his career anyway. He melt down to 147 and then rehydrates up in weight to have a size advantage over his welterweight opponents. Facing Cotto at 154 would likely be no problem for Brook.
Cotto needs to not too be too picky in making his selection of his next opponent because he could wind up missing too much time out of the ring. This often what happens to popular fighters when they get up there in age. They wait around too long for a big name to come along, and their skills deteriorate. They frequently shoot themselves in the foot by staying out of the ring waiting for the right opponent to come along. In any sport, you cannot afford to not compete frequently if you want to stay sharp.