By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum ruled out once again a fight between his guy WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) and former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) for Cotto’s next fight date on December 13th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
A match-up between Cotto and #8 WBO Andy Lee has already been talked about as possibly happening on this date, but fans have been generally cool to the idea of those two facing each other. It’s seen as too much of a mismatch in the eyes of fans. Arum still isn’t interested in putting together the Cotto vs. Canelo fight for December despite that being the match-up fans want to see. They’re not interested in seeing those two guys in preliminary bouts. It looks like Arum wants to let the Cotto-Canelo fight marinate a little longer like he did the Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa fight that never took place.
“Canelo is not an option for now, but honestly a fight in May is likely to be done,” Arum said to Deportes.univision.com.
It looks like Arum is going to try and challenge WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr for his fight date on May 2nd, 2015 on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. If Mayweather doesn’t back off and move his fight date, it could leave both fights drawing far fewer fans.
Arum mentioned in the past that it’s no problem for fans to watch two pay-per-view fights on the same night because they have Tivo. But it’s not about whether fans have Tivo, but rather what can they afford.
It would be asking fans to put down $140 for a single night in order to see the two separate pay-per-view fights. And for fans who don’t have Tivo, they’d have to go out and purchase one in addition to buying the two PPV cards. I can’t see it happening. Arum, Cotto and Canelo will end up far less money than they thought they would get for their mega fight, especially if Mayweather picks out a really big name for his May 2nd fight date.
It goes without saying that Mayweather is going to get the majority of the fans for his PPV fight compared to the Canelo-Cotto fight, and it’s just going to be a real disaster. The only way that Cotto and Canelo will be able to make up for it is if they fight a rematch on a date that Mayweather isn’t fighting. But with Canelo saying he plans on fighting on the Mexican holidays in May and September, he could run into the same problem in September of next year if he tries to challenge Mayweather for that date as well on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend.
If Canelo and Cotto challenge Mayweather for that date, we’ll probably see the same thing with Mayweather once again getting most of the PPV buys for his career compared to the Canelo-Cotto 2 fight, if they have a second fight.
Having Cotto and Canelo fight tune-up opponents in December seems like such a waste. They should fight now instead of making fans sit through what promises to be mismatches. You’d like to see Canelo and Cotto to take on a live body for their next fight, but it’s not going to happen. They’re not going to take any chances by facing someone good.
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