Cotto: The ball is in Canelo’s court

By Boxing News - 01/02/2015 - Comments

canelo6756By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) is saying that it’s up to his 24-year-old challenger Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) if he wants to face him in 2015.

Canelo has been complaining that he met the conditions for the fight in agreeing to what the 34-year-old Cotto has asked of him, yet the fight contract is still not signed. Those conditions, which are reportedly financial, don’t appear to have been met because Cotto’s adviser is saying that that the financial part of the negotiations still need to be worked out.

This probably means that Canelo is going to have to give in to what Cotto’s looking for on the financial side if he wants to get the fight with him.

“I did not put conditions on Canelo. I’m just asking what is right for me, so I’ve won all these years,” Cotto said to Primera Hora. They have the ball in their court, so they know what to do with it.”

What Cotto seems to be saying here is that Canelo is going to need to agree to a smaller purse split if he wants to get the fight with him. The negotiations probably aren’t stalled over the ring and glove size, venue and date. It’s got to be the money that has the fight in limbo, and the only way that it’s going to get made is if Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo give Cotto whatever he’s looking for on the financial side.

Canelo needs the fight a lot more than Cotto does, because he needs to be seen beating a credible fighter than the guys that he’s been beating during his career.

Canelo has two big wins in his career against Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara, and both of those victories were controversial. Canelo didn’t really prove that he was better than either of those guys in the minds of a lot of boxing fans.

That’s why it’s so important for Canelo to beat Cotto in order for him to be validated in the eyes of the fans. Since Canelo needs the fight so badly, he’s going to have to divvy up the money that Cotto wants in order for him to put his John Hancock on the contract.

From Cotto’s perspective, you can see why he would want the bigger slice of the financial pie. He’s accomplished more with his career, and his best wins aren’t controversial in nature. The only controversial fight on Cotto’s resume was his second fight with Antonio Margarito. The fight was stopped shortly after Margarito started making a comeback and give Cotto problems late in the fight.



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