Cotto confirms he’ll retire after Sadam Ali fight

By Boxing News - 11/15/2017 - Comments

Image: Cotto confirms he’ll retire after Sadam Ali fight

By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto confirmed on Wednesday that he’ll definitely be retiring after his title defense of his WBO junior middleweight belt against Golden Boy Promotions stable fighter Sadam Ali on December 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Cotto, 37, keeps getting asked by boxing fans whether he’ll continue his career, due to the high level that he’s still performing at. Cotto looked good in his last fight against fringe contender Yoshihiro Kamegai on August 26.

Granted, Kamegai arguably had no business being ranked in the top 15 in the first place, but Cotto still looked good beating him. I don’t think for a second Cotto would stand a chance against a talent like Jermell Charlo, but I think he’s still got enough left in the tank to give Jarrett Hurd problems.

”No, I have done everything in my career that I’ve wanted to do,” said Cotto when asked if he’ll resume his career after the Sadam Ali fight. ”This is the final. His decision is to retire now and spend more time with my family.”

Before Cotto’s recent win over Kamegai, he had been inactive for almost 2 years. Cotto was looking during all that time for fights against older guys like Juan Manuel Marquez. Unfortunately, those 2 were unable to put a fight together. Cotto wanted a big fight against a recognizable fighter, but there weren’t any available.

What made things harder is the negotiating with Golden Boy against some notable welterweights. The December 2 fight against Cotto was offered to fighters like Mikey Garcia, Errol Spence Jr. and a number of other fighters, but they all turned it down. It wasn’t that they were afraid of Cotto. They didn’t see the deal as being worth it.

Fighting Sadam Ali has to be viewed as a disappointing match, being that Cotto isn’t even facing one of the better fighters in the welterweight division. Cotto should be fighting someone from his own division at junior middleweight. Picking Sadam Ali just seems strange, and far from a great match. In hindsight, Cotto probably should have held off his retirement until a better opponent was available for him to fight.

Cotto has fought one good fighter in the last 4 years of his career, and that was Saul Canelo Alvarez. Cotto’s other fights have come against these guys:

• Delvin Rodriguez – 2nd tier fighter

• Sergio Martinez – old and with leg injury when Cotto fought him

• Daniel Geale – old and arguably over-the-hill when Cotto fought him

• Yoshihiro Kamegai

Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach was asked if he would have liked to have seen him face Canelo or Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, and this is what he said:

”You know, Triple G and Canelo would be great opponents, and we look forward to fighting them, but they all have obligations before, and the next best guy was the young guy coming up, the next generation. We are getting a chance at that, and we’ll see how good he really is.”

This was a really diplomatic answer by Roach in dancing around the reality that Cotto would have likely never agreed to fight Golovkin no matter what the circumstances. Cotto probably would have agreed to the rematch with Canelo if it were available to him. Roach is calling Sadam Ali the “next best young guy” is quite kind of him.

There were a lot of guys that Golden Boy probably have gotten from the welterweight division that would have agreed to fight Cotto if they had offered enough money, and if they hadn’t asked for options on them. Spence Jr. likely would jump all over the Cotto fight if the money was there and he wasn’t asked or options. I don’t think it would end well for Cotto to fight Spence. That wouldn’t be a good way for Cotto to end his boxing career in my opinion.