By Patrick McHugh: Roc Nation Sports, the promoters for former four-division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs), turned down a summer fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook (36-0, 25 KOs), according to his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport.
Hearn said that the plan was for Brook and Cotto to fight this summer on HBO at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. However, Roc Nation didn’t want the fight despite HBO liking the idea.
Hearn wasn’t surprised that they nixed the idea because Brook doesn’t have yet in the U.S. The only time he’s had a fight televised in the U.S was two years ago in his bout against former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter, and that was far from an exciting fight.
“That would have been the perfect, perfect fight,” Hearn said to ringtv.com. “HBO loved the fight and I spoke to Roc Nation and they said we don’t want to fight Kell Brook. And I don’t blame them because Kell Brook hasn’t got the name in the U.S. yet, and it’s too much risk for Miguel Cotto. There’s easier guys for Cotto to fight with bigger profiles in the U.S., so that fight never made sense to Cotto.”
Hearn is right about there are easier guys for Cotto to fight than Brook, but that’s not to say that Cotto couldn’t beat Brook. It’s very likely that Cotto would have more than enough still in the tank to defeat the 5’9” Brook. The main drawback for a Cotto vs. Brook fight is that it wouldn’t sell on HBO pay-per-view.
There’s no money in a fight like that in the U.S. The money would need to come entirely from Brook’s side for it to be worthwhile for Cotto.
Brook has now got his big fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Brook should be happy that he got this fight, because otherwise his options were limited to WBO 147lb champion Jessie Vargas. That would have been a winnable fight for Brook, but it’s also one that could have been a messy affair with Vargas potentially winning.
Even if Brook did defeat Vargas, it likely would have been competitive enough for Brook’s stock to plummet. Tim Bradley did a good job of beating Vargas last year, but Bradley has faster hands than Brook, and he’s a better defensive fighter. The things that Bradley did to Vargas are things that the slower Brook could never hope to do.
If Brook loses to Golovkin, as most boxing fans expect will happen, Hearn can try and offer the fight to Cotto again. Perhaps the results might be a little different after Cotto sees Golovkin handle Brook. He might suddenly show interest in that fight.
Cotto will be fighting in November or December against an opponent still to be determined. 42-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez is the name that keeps coming as the likely opponent for Cotto. However, there are a number of potential guys that could wind up in the ring with Cotto.