Miguel Cotto to fight in 2016

By Boxing News - 07/12/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) will soon be making a return to the ring in 2016 against an opponent still to be determined. It’s been eight months since the 35-year-old Cotto last fought in losing his WBC middleweight title to Saul “Canelo” Avarez by a 12 round unanimous decision in a 155lb catch-weight fight.

There’s been talk of a fight between Cotto and 42-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez. The sticking point has been the weight that the two former world champions would meet at. Cotto reportedly has been interested in fighting at a catch-weight of 150lbs, whereas Marquez wants the fight at 147.

“We are hoping to have Miguel back in the ring before the end of the year,” said Michael Yormark, Roc Nation via fightnews.com. “We’re working on that now. We’re hopeful to have some kind of an announcement over the next couple of weeks. We’re looking at a couple of opponents, but it’s too early to disclose who we’re talking to.”

A rematch against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez would be an obvious choice for Cotto in December if there’s interest with Golden Boy Promotions. That’s a fight that would do well if Cotto is willing to fight at middleweight again. If he does, he might want to get a rehydration clause in the contract to keep Canelo from ballooning past 170lbs after they weigh-in.

It’s unlikely that Cotto will take on one of the relevant junior middleweight title holders or contenders like Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Jermell Charlo, Julian Williams or Demetrius Andrade. If Cotto is going to fight any of the junior middleweights, it would likely be someone beatable like Vanes Martirosyan, who is coming off of a loss to Lara. I don’t think is going to fight any junior middleweights or middleweights.

If Cotto can’t get a fight against Marquez, it’ll probably be another welterweight, someone fairly well known and vulnerable. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Cotto fight someone like Tim Bradley. That would be a fight that would be an opponent that would be an obvious choice. If Manny Pacquiao is going to be coming back for October of this year, then that would be a possibility too. There would be a lot of boxing fans that would like to see Cotto and Pacquiao face each other again. Cotto was stopped in the 12th round by Pacquiao seven years ago in 2009 in a catch-weight fight at 145lbs. If Cotto fights Pacquiao a second time, it would probably involve another catch-weight, but this one a little more friendly to Cotto at 150.

I don’t think there would be a whole lot of interest in a Cotto vs. Marquez fight at this point. Marquez has been out of the ring for two years since 2014 with a knee problem. I’m not sure that Marquez’s knee has gotten any better with the time that he’s been out of the ring. A fight between Cotto and Marquez would have made sense four years ago after Marquez knocked Pacquiao out, but too much time has gone by since then. Marquez suffered a loss to Tim Bradley in 2013, and he didn’t look good against Alvarado in 2014.