By Dan Ambrose: Just as I thought – Saul “Canelo” Alvarez may have spoken too soon about taking the May 2nd Mexican holiday from Floyd Mayweather Jr. It seems that the Canelo vs. Miguel Cotto negotiations have reached an impasse, and Cotto’s management are now thinking about facing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 2nd instead of Canelo.
I figured something like this would happen, because Canelo is a fighter that is a hard negotiator and that kind of thing doesn’t work when you have an A-side star like Cotto.
Canelo hasn’t proven himself like Cotto, and he hasn’t paid his dues yet. For this reason, Canelo should be bending to whatever Cotto wants in the negotiations if he wants the fight. Judging by the comments that Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said today, I’m not sure if that’s been happening.
“@caneloOficial has conceded on all demands, including moving from 50/50,” De La Hoya said on his twitter as quoted by Fighthype.com. ”The ball has been in @Real Miguel Cotto court for more than 6 weeks.”
Here’s a tip for De La Hoya; If Cotto has been sitting on the negotiation terms for six weeks, it suggests that he’s not truly happy with them. Something in there isn’t right. It could be the purse split or something else. We don’t know how far off they moved from the 50-50 split.
If Cotto feels that the still very inexperienced Canelo is getting too high of a pay cut given his youth and his accomplishments, then of course Cotto isn’t going to agree to the fight. The man has paid his dues during his career, and he’s the WBC middleweight champion. As the challenger, Canelo should be getting far less than the champion. That’s how it normally goes.
If the red-headed Canelo is asking for too much money then you can’t blame Cotto for not wanting to put his John Hancock on the contract. Cotto is one of the smartest fighters in boxing. He knows how much he’s worth, and he’s not going to sign a contract that he feels isn’t what he believes is fair given his talent, accomplishments, popularity and him being the champion.
“The reality is that there is no agreement yet, none, for any fight. We are in talks, but to say that an agreement has been made is not true,” Cotto’s adviser Gaby Penagaricano said via thesportspress.com. “A fight with Mayweather has not been totally ruled out. We must see first what will happen with this fight [Mayweather vs. Pacquiao], but it [rematch with Mayweather] could be a possibility. It’s an interesting fight.”
It’s definitely a smart move on Cotto’s part to take the Mayweather fight first, because it gives him a shot at making better money than he’d make against Canelo. In addition to that, it will make a Canelo fight a bigger fight in the future if the two of them can negotiate the fight.
Canelo is only 24, so he’ll always be there for Cotto. But Mayweather is someone who will likely be retiring after 2015. If Cotto doesn’t face him now, then he likely will never get another chance.
The previous Cotto-Mayweather fight in 2012 was a very close affair with the two of them standing and fighting toe-to-toe for 12 rounds. Cotto would have won the fight if he didn’t gas out in the last three rounds. If he can avoid gassing out this time, he’ll have a very good chance of beating Mayweather. He might also score a knockout early if he can connect with one of his big left hooks.
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