By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t seem to be all that enthused with the idea Cotto fighting IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.
Roach questions whether Golovkin is well known enough for him to be worthwhile as an opponent for the 35-year-old Cotto. Roach says that Golovkin’s low pay-per-view numbers for his recent fight against David Lemieux is an example of him not being a pay-per-view worthy opponent. Roach also says that his fighter Manny Pacquiao didn’t have any idea who Golovkin was when he came over to the Wildcard Gym to visit him and Pacquiao and post for photos.
According to Roach, Pacquiao asked him who Golovkin was after he left the gym. Roach figures that if Pacquiao doesn’t know who Golovkin is then it means other people don’t know who he is as well. Of course, Cotto has been fighting guys that the U.S public isn’t well familiar with like Delvin Rodriguez and Daniel Geale.
The hardcore boxing fans in the U.S know who those fighters are but the casual boxing fans likely would have no idea who they are. If Cotto was willing to fight them, then he should be willing to fight Golovkin unless he and Roach deem the risk as being too high. In that case, then they need to relinquish the WBC middleweight title so that Golovkin can scoop it up and fight the top fighters in the middleweight division without worrying about whether they’re too much trouble for the money.
“That’s [Cotto vs. Golovkin] out there, of course. The thing is we wonder if Golovkin can draw pay-per-view that well,” Roach said to Fighthype. “I think his last fight didn’t do that well [against David Lemieux]. Hopefully with this match-up, it will do well because it’s tough to fight Golovkin for free. It’s a tough fight. I know he’s a good fighter, but if you fight a guy like that, you want to get paid for it, but it can happen for sure. When he [Golovkin] said he carried that one fighter [Willie Monroe Jr], I don’t think that helped him. People don’t like that. Why would you carry a fighter? To me, carrying a fighter is almost like a fix. If the guy [Monroe Jr] is that bad, do you really need to put him in there if you have to carry somebody?” Roach said.
Cotto isn’t much of a PPV attraction himself. His fight with Sergio Martinez drew a little over 300,000 PPV buys last year. Cotto has been fighting in the U.S for basically his entire career, and yet he doesn’t seem to be able to bring in big numbers on PPV unless he’s matched up as the B-side fighter against the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
As for Roach saying that Golovkin carrying Monroe Jr. is similar to a fight being fixed, I don’t agree with that. I do know that a lot of boxing fans are upset that Roach’s fighter Manny Pacquiao fought Mayweather with a preexisting shoulder injury that Roach said that he knew about ahead of time. That’s obviously not something to be proud of, and I know a lot of boxing fans aren’t too happy with Pacquiao and Roach about that.
I would venture to guess that more boxing fans are upset with Roach and Pacquiao about his preexisting shoulder injury than fans being upset with Golovkin because he said he carried Monroe for a few rounds before knocking him out. The Golovkin-Monroe fight was a mismatch on paper going into the fight, but at least Monroe was highly ranked and not older fighters like two of Cotto’s recent opponents Geale and Delvin Rodriguez. Monroe Jr. wasn’t someone who had recently been knocked out like Geale had before Cotto fought him.
“I will say this; How well known is he [Golovkin]? When Manny Pacquiao came out of the locker room [at the Wildcard Gym] before his last fight and he [Golovkin] asked to take a picture of each other, and they did and when we [Roach and Pacquiao] got in the ring, Manny said ‘Freddie, who is that guy?’” Roach said.
If Roach feels that Golovkin isn’t well-known enough for Cotto to fight him, then he needs to impress upon that he should stay away from him. But I don’t think Cotto will be fighting more popular fighters than Golovkin once he gets finished with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on November 21st.
If Cotto turns around and fights someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Pacquiao after the Canelo fight, then he obviously won’t take any heat for steering around Golovkin. But if Cotto goes back to fighting the likes of Geale, Rodriguez and Austin Trout, then Roach is going to look silly. If Cotto’s decision to fight Golovkin or not is based on whether he’s popular enough to fight him, then that means that Cotto will need to always fight more popular fighters than Golovkin in order not to be seen as someone who is ducking him.
Somehow, I don’t see a lot of guys out there that are more popular than Golovkin other than Mayweather, Pacquiao and Canelo. Once Canelo is out of the way, then Cotto will have limited choices for big fights. I don’t see Pacquiao or Mayweather ever fighting Cotto again. Roach would like Mayweather to, but I don’t see that happening. That leaves only Golokvin for Cotto. Whether Roach wants to acknowledge it or not, Golovkin is the most popular guy left once you get past Mayweather, Pacquiao and Canelo.
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