Miguel Cotto won’t fight until 2017

By Boxing News - 10/19/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) has decided to stay outside of the ring for the remainder of 2016 so that he can test up for 2016, according to ESPN. Cotto will be turning 36-years-old on October 29, and he hasn’t fought at all in 2016 since his 12 round decision loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez last November in 2015.

When Cotto does return to the ring in 2017, he could be facing the likes of Lamont Peterson or Tim Bradley (33-2-1, 13 KOs). Both of them are aging welterweights, who haven’t been active lately. Bradley fought only once in 2016 in losing to Manny Pacquiao last April.

Peterson hasn’t fought at all in 2016. His last fight was a narrow/controversial 12 round decision over Felix Diaz in October 2015. Cotto was recently in talks with 43-year-old former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez for what would have been a pay-per-view fight. However, the two fighters couldn’t agree on the weight. Marquez wanted Cotto to come down to 148 for the fight to take place. That would be asking a lot for Cotto, who hasn’t fought that low since his loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2009. Marquez hasn’t fought in two years since 2014.

Miguel Cotto Promotions executive Bryan Perez said this to ESPN.com about Cotto staying out of the ring until 2017:

“He decided not to fight in 2016,. We had different conversations about fighting in December but we decided not to fight and do it in the first part of 2017, between February or March. He says he wants to continue to fight and to explore facing the best names out there and getting the best guarantee (in terms of money).”

It’s hard to imagine Cotto getting a lot of money fighting Lamont Peterson. That seems like a rather lower level fight. Even Cotto vs. Bradley isn’t exactly a winner. Pacquiao’s recent fight against Bradley did poor numbers on HBO pay-per-view. If Cotto’s idea is to fight Bradley on pay-per-view, it might be a fight that’s dead on arrival. Cotto could probably make more money fighting a younger fighter like Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia or Errol Spence Jr. I’m not sure that Cotto could beat all of them, but you’d have to give him a good chance against Garcia. Spence and Thurman would probably beat Cotto. Gennady Golovkin would be a great fight for Cotto. It would be new blood, and the boxing world would likely be very interested in seeing that fight on HBO pay-per-view. It would show courage on Cotto’s part for taking on Golovkin, because he would be seen by boxing fans as someone that is still at least trying to be relevant instead of someone who is carefully combing the welterweight division looking for older guys like Marquez, Peterson and Bradley. Those are all aging fighters that have not been fighting lately.

With Cotto’s next fight in 2017, he’ll be finishing out his three-fight contract with Roc Nation Sports. It remains to be seen whether Cotto will re-up with Roc Nation or go in another direction in signing with another promotional company. Whatever happens, hopefully Cotto starts fighting a little more frequently, because he’s wasting his final years by not being active. Cotto has fought only four times in the last three years. Cotto fought once in 2013, once in 2014, and twice in 2015. Cotto isn’t fighting the best every time out.

In the last three years, Cotto only fought one good fighter in Canelo. His other wins were over an aging Daniel Geale, injured and old Sergio Martinez and Delvin Rodriguez. We’ve heard Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach talk about how he’s improved Cotto and made him better than he was before, but not seems to have changed from the Cotto that lost to Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2012. The only thing that appears to have changed is Cotto isn’t fighting the best any longer. He just has that one fight against Canelo in the last three years. Cotto’s other opponents have been older guys that were past their prime.

What’s more than a little disappointing is the fact that Cotto is fighting in the junior middleweight division, and yet he’s not fighting the top fighters in the division. He’s combing the welterweight division looking for opponents. Why isn’t Cotto looking to show that he’s a serious fighter in facing the top junior middleweights like Erislandy Lara, Julian Williams, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo and Demetrius Andrade? If Cotto only wants to fight welterweights, then why doesn’t he move down to the 147lb division to fight those guys at the same weight? Why pull them up to junior middleweight?

“Obviously, he is not going to go to welterweight,” said Perez about Cotto.

Why is Perez saying that it’s obvious that Cotto isn’t going to fight at welterweight? If he’s fighting welterweights, then shouldn’t be fighting in that division. It seems pretty obvious to me. If Cotto wants to fight only 147 pound fighters, he should move down to the welterweight division instead of picking on smaller fighters than himself. It’s sad how fighters do this kind of thing so often in the sport, because it gives them an advantage.

Whether Cotto fights Bradley or not will be up to Bradley and Top Rank. Bradley’s wife Monica Bradley says Bradley is interested in fighting Cotto, which isn’t that surprising considering that there aren’t a lot of options for Bradley now. He’s already fought Pacquiao three times, and there’s little chance of Top Rank asking the boxing public to pay to see a fourth fight between them. Their last fight had declining numbers earlier this year. That was a fight that the fans WERE NOT asking for, and it was not a good idea for the fight to have been made.

Bradley has talked about being open to fighting guys outside his weight division, but he would be way out of his class if he go matched against a big junior middleweight or middleweight. Some boxing fans have floated the idea of a Bradley vs. Gennady Golovkin fight, but that would likely be a massacre worse than Golovkin’s recent fight against Kell Brook.
“That’s one of the fights Tim would like before he is done with his career,” Monica Bradley said to ESPN.com about a fight between Bradley and Cotto.

Bradley doesn’t have a lot of punching power, and it would be a mismatch to put him in with Cotto. As a fan, I’d rather see Cotto fight someone with a sporting chance like Pacquiao, Spence, Thurman or a rematch with Canelo.