Miguel Cotto vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight won’t be happening

By Boxing News - 08/02/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Unfortunately for 35-year-old former four division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs), he was unable to negotiate a fight against the soon to be 43-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) for a fight that would have taken place in December. The two fighters couldn’t agree on the weight for the fight. Cotto will now move on and look for someone else to fight.

Marquez wanted to fight at 147, but Cotto wasn’t able to do that weight, according to Dan Rafael. Cotto wanted 150lbs for a catch-weight.

The fact that Cotto was willing to fight an older, smaller fighter like Marquez rather than someone younger, active, relevant and his own size tells you that he’s not looking to fight any of the top guys in his next fight. It’s thought that Cotto wants someone that is pay-per-view worthy so that the fight will make money while he waits for a rematch against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Cotto lost to Canelo last November in a fight that brought in 900,000 PPV buys on HBO. Canelo won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision in a close fight.

It would have been an interesting fight if it had taken place. However, Marquez hasn’t fought in over two years due to a knee problem, and you wonder how effective he would have been with that time off from the ring and with his advanced age.

“A fight with Juan Manuel Marquez is not happening, 100 percent for sure,” Bryan Perez of Miguel Cotto Promotions said to ESPN.com. “Maybe we can make it later on, but it will not be Miguel’s fight this year. Miguel wanted the fight, but it was all about getting a deal for the right weight. Financial-wise, there were no problems making a deal. Usually making a big fight, it’s financial when there are issues. That was not what happened with Marquez.”

The fight between Marquez and Cotto might happen next year. In the meantime, Cotto still needs an opponent for December. He’ll have been out of the ring for over a year when he does fight, and there’s the question of ring rust that will play into that fight.

Cotto hasn’t been all that busy with his career in the last two years since 2014. Cotto beat Sergio Martinez in 2014, and then took a year off before fighting Daniel Geale in June 2015. Cotto has now taken another year off. The last big layoff didn’t hurt Cotto, but it’s possible that this one will. We’ll have to see. However, if Cotto is just looking for old guys to fight, then it won’t matter how ring rusty he is.

Cotto is in a tough position for his December fight. For his fight to have a chance of making money, he needs to fight guys that are popular or at least highly respected by the casual and hardcore fans. Cotto isn’t going to be able to find another 40-year-old with a big name like Sergio Martinez for him to fight. It was the perfect situation for Cotto.

Martinez was a world champion at middleweight, he was old, and he had a bad right knee. Cotto was able to go in and take Martinez’s title without any problems. There aren’t any Sergio Martinez types around right now with titles this time around. Cotto will need to pick someone that is respectable for him to be able to bring in PPV buys.

It’s thought that Cotto will wind up facing a welterweight in his next fight for a fight at either 150 or 154. A fight between Cotto and Tim Bradley would be a good fight if it could be negotiated. Bradley has a name. However, Cotto vs. Bradley might not do well on HBO PPV if that’s the idea that Cotto has. That kind of match-up would be good for regular HBO, but probably not for PPV purposes.

For Cotto’s next fight to do well on PPV, he probably needs Manny Pacquiao, Gennady Golovkin or Canelo. It’s not likely that Canelo will be able to fight any of those guys in December. I don’t think for a second that Cotto would fight Golovkin. That would likely be a mismatch with Cotto getting knocked around the ring before getting stopped. Golovkin is too big, too strong, and too skilled. Their age isn’t far apart, but Golovkin seems a lot younger than Cotto in terms of ring wear in my view. He hasn’t had a lot of grueling fights in his career like Cotto.