By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya is confident that Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) will get by WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) in their fight on December 1st at the Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Following this fight, De La Hoya sees a possible unification bout between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Cotto, with the WBA 154 strap that he wins from Trout.
De La Hoya said to Primerahora.com “We are very confident that Cotto will come out with his hand raised. A possible fight with Alvarez would be quite an event. Duels between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are always attractive…A fight between the two [Cotto and Alvarez] would be a very big event.”
De La Hoya sounds like he can barely contain himself. However, I wouldn’t get so confident that the Alvarez-Cotto fight will materialize if I were De La Hoya, because Trout has a great opportunity to beat Cotto in December and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. Cotto lost his last fight against a flat-footed Floyd Mayweather Jr, and while the fight was competitive, it wouldn’t have been had Mayweather Jr. used movement. He decided upon himself to fight Cotto’s game by slugging with him instead of boxing. Trout won’t do that. He’ll box Cotto and use his superior reach.
I can see Cotto losing badly to Trout, and possibly getting knocked out. I know De La Hoya would love to put on the Cotto vs. Alvarez fight on pay per view, because it would make a ton of money, but Trout is going to likely mess up De La Hoya’s big plans. But even if Cotto does beat Trout, I still don’t think Cotto will take the fight with Alvarez. I’d be willing to bet that Mayweather will look to fight Cotto again, and that will get in the way of a Cotto-Alvarez fight. I don’t know how eager Cotto is in fighting Alvarez. Cotto had the chance to fight Alvarez in December and instead chose Trout. What does that tell you? It tells me that Cotto isn’t excited about facing the 22-year-old Canelo Alvarez.
De La Hoya should think about other options for Alvarez, ideally putting him finally with a good junior middleweight like Erislandy Lara or Vanes Martirosyan. Alvarez has been shielded from quality competition for too long and it’s time that Golden Boy Promotions finally puts him in with someone that can fight from his own division.
Alvarez has faced welterweights like Alfonso Gomez, Matthew Hatton and Josesito Lopez in the last year instead of taking on the best junior middleweights. I’d prefer to see Alvarez earn a shot against Cotto by proving he can beat Lara or Martirorsyan before getting a Cotto fight. At least boxing would then know whether Alvarez is for a real or just someone that Golden Boy has built up to look good by putting him in with old guys or smaller fighters. I can’t believe how softly Alvarez has been matched since he picked up the WBC belt last year. It’s like he’s still a contender and not a champion with the way he’s been matched.
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