Cotto could be out-weighed by 15lbs by Geale on June 6th

By Boxing News - 05/24/2015 - Comments

Image: Cotto could be out-weighed by 15lbs by Geale on June 6thBy Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) could be giving away as much as 15 pounds against challenger Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) in their catch-weight fight at 157 pounds on June 6th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Geale’s promoter Gary Shaw expects him to rehydrate to 175 after he makes weight for Cotto’s requested catch-weight fight.

It’s kind of sad to see the WBC middleweight champion reduced to asking for a catch-weight for him to defend his title. This is Cotto’s first defense of his WBC 160lb title that he won a year ago in June against 40-year-old Sergio Martinez, who came into the fight with a bum right knee after having had two surgeries on it in an attempt to fix the problem.

Now instead of vacating the title so that a real middleweight can fight for it, Cotto is fighting at a catch-weight against an opponent that was knocked out in 3 rounds last year against Gennady Golovkin.

“I also think it was a bad decision to Miguel even though you have a lot of appreciation,” Shaw said via ESPN Deportes. “I see Geale moving much. Also, he’s [Cotto] facing a guy who could be at 175 pounds. I will be interested to see the effect of that weight in the fight, “Shaw said.

The combination of Geale’s movement and weight could be a real problem for Cotto in this fight. He’s only faced one guy who had any size during his career and that was the totally shot Sergio Martinez. You can’t count that fight due to Martinez’s advanced age and the condition of his right knee. Cotto and his trainer Freddie Roach scouted out Martinez well and realized that he was ready to be beaten at that point in his career.

The fact that they didn’t go after Golovkin tells you all you need to know about what they thought their chances were against him.

“I think this will be a fight like Trout. With much movement and Miguel have problems with that,” Shaw said. “That’s what gave Miguel problems with Trout.“

Cotto and his management obviously picked out Geale because they saw him as a guy they could beat without too many problems. Cotto wants to move forward after this fight for a big money fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez later this year. But Geale can play a real spoiler on June 6th by beating Cotto and ruining his fight against Canelo.

Cotto will still likely take the fight against Canelo, but the PPV money will obviously be less than it would have been. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya already said that he’d still match Canelo against Cotto even if one of the two were coming off of a loss. De La Hoya may get that chance of Geale beats Cotto.

It’s not an ideal situation for De La Hoya if that happens, but there will be enough casual boxing fans who didn’t hear about Cotto’s loss to Geale for them to want to still see a Canelo-Cotto fight.



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