By Jason Kim: You can add World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Andre Berto (26-0, 20 KOs) in the mix of potential opponents for new WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) to fight next. In an article at Primera Hora, Berto’s promoter, Lou Dibella, had this to say about a potential match between Berto and Cotto: “We love the idea. Berto would be willing to rise to 154 pounds to challenge Cotto. I understand that would be a sensational fight for the styles of both fighters. We must wait until all the chips fall into place. Finally, if Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. , face each other, this increases our chances of achieving a fight with Cotto. I had a conversation with [Bob] Arum and he was honest in telling me I had to be patient.”

A fight between Cotto and Berto would no doubt he a huge fight. However, the chances of that fight happening might not be all that good, because Arum likes to match the fighters in his stable against each other rather than having them fight outside guys, and Berto fights for Dibella. There’s always a chance that Arum could make the Cotto-Berto fight, because boxing fans obviously would like to see this fight.

However, fans also would like to see a rematch between Cotto and Antonio Margarito, who destroyed Cotto two years ago in an 11th round TKO in July 2008. Margarito fights for Arum’s Top Rank Company, which probably makes gives Margarito a better chance at getting a fight against Cotto than Berto. Additionally, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is also in the mix for a fight against Cotto, provided that Chavez can get by John Duddy this Saturday night in their fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Chavez, 24, is popular in the Mexican community, would likely pose little threat to Cotto, and would bring in a good payday without the risk for Cotto that someone like Berto would. Chavez also fights for Arum. Based on all those factors, I’d say that Chavez Jr. might have a better chance at fighting Cotto than Berto right now. Arum is keeping Cotto as a backup plan for Pacquiao in case his Pacquiao-Mayweather fight doesn’t take place.

Cotto would then likely get the call for a rematch with Pacquiao, with the selling point that Pacquiao would be going after his 8th world title so that boxing fans don’t complain too much about what appears to be a needless rematch. I suspect that Cotto could end up fighting Berto at some point, but only after Cotto fights Chavez Jr., Pacquiao and Margarito. Once those three fights are out of the way, if Cotto isn’t too badly deteriorated by then, I think a fight between Cotto and Berto will be put together. But I can’t see Cotto being put in with Berto anytime before that, even though it would be a great fight and clearly a better one that seeing Cotto beat up on the 24-year-old Chavez Jr.