Cotto: Marquez is a great fight

By Boxing News - 02/09/2017 - Comments

Image: Cotto: Marquez is a great fight

By Dan Ambrose: With James Kirkland having pulled out of the February 25th fight on HBO PPV, Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) is now interested in fighting the inactive 43-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs). Cotto reportedly sees the fight against Marquez as a great fight despite the fact that the Mexican fighter hasn’t fought in three years since 2014.

You can argue that a fight against Marquez might be a good one in comparison to Cotto’s previously scheduled opponent Kirkland, but it’s still hardly a good fight. When you’re talking about fighting someone who hasn’t fought in 3 years and is now 43-years-old like Marquez, it’s not a great fight for boxing fans hoping to get good fight for their money.

Cotto vs. Marquez would be a good fight on free television, but not for PPV. It’s not really a sporting event in my view. Marquez has been inactive for too long for it to be a real sporting fight. When you’ve been inactive for 3 years, you really need tune-ups to show the boxing fans that you can still fight and you’re still serious about the sport.

Cotto vs. Marquez would likely be on pay-per-view. That’s kind of crazy for a fight involving two inactive fighters. Cotto hasn’t fought in nearly two years himself since losing to Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2015.

“Márquez is a great fight, we should put all the cards on the table and if the fight can happen, it will be,” Cotto said via primerahora.com. “We’re still waiting for what happens with the Roc Nation and see what the tide brings,” Cotto said.

Will the fans want to pay to see Cotto fight Marquez? That’s not a really great fight. Marquez has been out of the ring for such a long time. I don’t think the younger boxing fans will know who Marquez is. The older hardcore fans will obviously remember Marquez for his four fights with Manny Pacquiao, which he appeared to win all four of them, but there might not be enough hardcore fans to make a Cotto-Marquez fight a success. It just looks like an old timers fight.

There’s nothing wrong with fighters facing older guys in their 40s. That’s not the issue. What makes the Cotto-Marquez fight look bad is the three years that Marquez has been out of the ring. Cotto might as well be pulling Julio Cesar Chavez, Sugar Ray Leonard or Roberto Duran back inside the ring to fight him rather than Marquez. Why fight someone that has been out of the ring for such a long time like Marquez? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not a good fight in my opinion. Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao 2 would be a good fight. If Cotto wants to fight an older fighter, he should be trying to fight Pacquiao again, because he never avenged his loss to him from 2009. Cotto vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. would be a good fight. I don’t think it can be made, but it would be a good fight. Mayweather would be a good option for Cotto if he wants an older fighter in his 40s to fight.

It would be nice if the tide brought in Jermall Charlo for Cotto to fight rather than an inactive Marquez, who has had knee problems since his 12 round unanimous decision win over Mike Alvarado in 2014. When you start picking out older fighters that have been inactive for 3 years, it just looks wrong. Even a fight against Kirkland would have been a bad fight, because he rarely fights nowadays and he’s not one of the highly ranked fighters in the 154lb division.

Instead of picking out older and smaller fighters like Marquez, Cotto should be fighting one of the top fighters in the 154lb division like the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara, Julian “J-Rock” Williams or Demetrius Andrade. If Cotto can’t beat any of them, then so be it. That’s just the way it is in boxing. Cotto vs. Marquez would give the appearance of an old timer’s fighter to some boxing fans, because of the advanced age of both fighters.

I don’t think that’s a great look for Cotto. I think the fans would prefer to see Cotto mix it up with a top fighter from this day and age rather than someone from the past who no longer fighters. Marquez was a great fighter during his day and age, but he’s no longer fighting, and he hasn’t fought in many years. Why would Cotto want to fight someone like that? It’s too late to make a fight against Marquez. That fight should have been made many years ago back when Marquez was healthy, active and still fighting at a high level.

To fight Marquez now would look like a retirement fight. If Cotto wants to fight Marquez and give the fight a proper slogan to market it reflecting what the fight really is, then it would sort of make sense. Cotto could call the fight an exhibition fight and have them both wear head gear. If the boxing fans want to pay to see the fight then that would be for them to decide, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for a fight.

Cotto would be better off taking his lumps against one of the relevant fighters from this era like Jermall Charlo. I think a lot of fans would love the idea of seeing what Cotto can do against Jermall. He’s considered the best in the division in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. Cotto wouldn’t take as much criticism if he lost to Jermall, because he would be facing the best in the division rather than a smaller inactive 43-year-old fighter that has been out of the ring for 3 years like Marquez.

Cotto and Canelo Alvarez are expected to face each other in December in what could be the final fight of Cotto’s career. That’s a good fight in theory. I think it’s a little late for them to be facing each other again. They should have fought each other right away after their fight in November 2015. What makes the rematch between Cotto and Canelo not a particularly good one is the inactivity for Cotto. He hasn’t fought since his loss, and trying to get a fight against Kirkland rather than one of the talented fighters from the 154lb division.

The Kirkland fight confused a lot of boxing writers, as they didn’t understand why Cotto would pick out an inactive fighter from the past rather than someone that is still fighting and doing well. Kirkland was a good contender in 2009, but his career never took after he was jailed for a period around that time. It’s too bad, because Kirkland might have won a world title if he’d not had a career break.