By Dan Ambrose: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto has suddenly changed his mind about fighting Antonio Margarito in the summer. Cotto was previously entertaining the idea of fighting Sergio Martinez next or at least waiting until he heard how big of an offer he could get for this fight. Now Cotto has changed his mind and will be going ahead with the Margarito rematch in the summer as his promoter Bob Arum wishes for him.

Cotto is leaving his career guidance in Arum’s hands rather than bucking his wishes and going in a different direction in a fight against Martinez. Arum hasn’t been talking about matching Cotto up with Martinez for some reason, even though it would be a great fight. However, Arum probably knows best, as Cotto would likely have very little chance of beating Martinez and an excellent chance of being beaten up and knocked cold.

Margarito at least is someone that Cotto would have a reasonable chance of beating the second time around. Margarito gave Cotto a tremendous whipping three years ago in an 11th round stoppage. However, Margarito doesn’t seem like the same fighter now as he was then, as he’s lost to Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley, and taken bad beatings in both of those fights. Cotto doesn’t look like the same fighter either.

However, his new trainer Emanuel Steward has turned Cotto into a much more defensively oriented fighter and he might be able to squeeze out a decision against Margarito in their rematch. Forget about Cotto knocking Margarito out. That’s not going to happen unless Cotto sticks his neck out and stands and slugs with Margarito. If Cotto does that, he’ll probably lose again because he doesn’t appear to have the size to trade with a tough guy like Margarito for 12 rounds without falling apart.