By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach says that for a fight between Cotto and WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin to take place it require that Golovkin come down to 154 because Roach thinks that Golovkin is too big and strong at 160 for Cotto, according to ESPN’s Dan Rafael.
Roach was at Golovkin’s fight against Daniel Geale last Saturday night and he came away from that fight impressed with Golovkin’s power but he still saw weakness areas that he thinks Cotto could exploit. Roach thinks Golovkin has defensive problems, and he thinks he’s been fighting middle of the road guys.
Roach says that he prefers that Cotto fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez rather than Golovkin. But he feels that if Cotto did face Golovkin, then he could get him ready to beat the Kazakhstan fighter.
“If we did fight him I’d like the fight to be closer to 154 [pounds] to make him come down a little bit. He’s very strong, but I think we definitely could negotiate that fight for sure,” Roach said to Dan Rafael of ESPN. “Cotto made 155 last time [for the Martinez fight]. He’s a little smaller than Golovkin, so I’d like him to come down as far as possible. I could definitely get Miguel ready for that fight.”
When Roach says he’d like to get Golovkin to come down as far as possible it leaves you wondering how far does he want Golovkin to come down? Golovkin and his trainer Abel Sanchez are already on record in saying that they’d definitely come down to 154 to fight Cotto if that’s what he feels comfortable. But if Roach is talking about having Golovkin drain down to 150-152 in order to weaken him enough for Cotto to beat him, then I don’t think that’s going to fly with Golovkin’s promoters at K2 Promotions.
It’s only thing in having Golovkin move down to a division that Cotto’s been fighting at for the past 4 years, but to try and get him to drain down even further, it’s just too much.
The troubling thing about Roach saying that Golovkin would have to come down to 154 in order to fight Cotto, Roach is basically admitting that Cotto is a paper champion a middleweight with the WBC belt he won against 39-year-old Sergio Martinez with his bad knee.
If Cotto is the legit linear middleweight champion after beating Martinez, then he should have no problems in putting the title on the line for a unification match against Golovkin. Of course, if Cotto is just a paper champion by virtue of beating an over the hill champion, then Roach should be telling him to vacate his WBC title so that other fighters can compete for the belt.
None of this really matters though, because Roach doesn’t negotiate the fights for Cotto. Roach is just the trainer and nothing more.
Earlier on Friday, Cotto’s promoter Bob Arum reportedly said that his next fight will be on regular HBO rather than on HBO pay-per-view. One of the names that are being mentioned is Andy Lee.
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