By Dan Ambrose: Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) plans on fighting just one more time before retiring after his February 25 fight against James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs) on HBO PPV at the Ford Center at The Star, in Frisco, Texas. Cotto, 36, says he once big name for his last fight otherwise he’s going to forget about the fight.
With 2017 being Cotto’s last year in boxing, he’s going to be kind of limited when it comes to getting a big name for him to fight. Cotto hasn’t shown much interest in facing the top fighters at 154 like the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara, Julian Williams and Demetrius Andrade.
Saul Canelo Alvarez is already pretty much booked up for the year. He wants to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in May and then Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in September. Unless Canelo comes back to fight at the tail end of the year, there may not be an opportunity for Cotto to fight him again.
Of course, Cotto could always elect to fight Golovkin in December 2017, but that’s probably not what he has in mind in wanting to take a big fight in his last fight of his career. Golovkin would very likely send Cotto into retirement on his back. I think Cotto is more interested in facing someone that he can absolutely beat, which is probably why he selected the inactive Kirkland as his opponent rather than a good contender or champion from the 154lb division.
Cotto is popular enough to call the shots if he wanted to fight for a world title at 154. If Cotto suddenly had the desire to fight for a world title against IBF champion Jermall Charlo or WBA champion Erislandy Lara, he probably could. I don’t think Cotto’s interested though. You see that he’s fighting Kirkland. Before that, Cotto reportedly was interested in fighting Juan Manuel Marquez and Brandon Rios.
Cotto said this via Fight News about 2017 being his last year in boxing:
“This is my last year in boxing, 2017 is the last chapter of my career,” said Cotto. “It has to be a great name, a big name and if not I am going to go home.”
It depends on what Cotto considers a “great name” for his last fight. He can forget about Floyd Mayweather Jr. returning to the ring to fight him. That’s not going to happen. Canelo would be Cotto’s best chance for a big payday, but as I mentioned, I don’t see that fight happening in 2017 with Canelo’s schedule the way it is.
Maybe Cotto won’t mind picking out another old timer for his next fight. 44-year-old Shane Mosley would likely agree to fight Cotto if asked. The two of them fought each other in the past with Cotto beating Mosley in 2007. It was a close 12 round decision win for Cotto. If Cotto chooses to stick a fight against Mosley on HBO PPV like he’s doing with his mismatch against Kirkland, there might be a few boxing fans that choose to purchase it on PPV. I don’t think too many of them though.
It would be brave of Cotto to fight for the final time of his career against Golovkin. I just don’t think Cotto thinking of Golovkin when it comes to him fighting a big name. It’s more likely that Cotto is focused on facing smaller guys that aren’t necessarily at the top any longer like welterweight Tim Bradley, Manny Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez. One of those guys if Canelo doesn’t choose to fight him again. You never know.
Golden Boy Promotions might choose to have Canelo sidestep Golovkin in September and instead match him up against Cotto again. They can always push the Golovkin fight into 2018. There’s not much Golovkin and his promoters at K2 Promotions can do about it if Canelo and Golden Boy choose to let the Canelo-Golovkin fight marinate a little more by tentaviely schedule it for 2018. Golovkin will be a year old by that point. He’ll be 36 by that time, and maybe his boxing skills and punching power will have eroded enough for Canelo to beat him with a high degree of certainty.
Whoever Cotto picks for his last fight, he’s not helping to make the fight a big one by choosing to fight the 32-year-old Kirkland for his next fight on February 25. Cotto is pretty much fighting a journeyman, and he’s sticking it on HBO PPV, where it’s not going to be seen by a lot of fans. There’s no demand for the Cotto-Kirkland fight, and the younger boxing fans likely aren’t familiar with Kirkland.
The older hardcore boxing fans that were following the sport in 2009 and before would know who Kirkland is. That was when Kirkland was still an active fighter. He stopped being active after 2009. Kirkland has rarely fought since 2011, and he hasn’t won a fight since 2013. Kirkland’s record in his last five fights is 3-2. It probably would have been 2-3 if the referee hadn’t disqualified Carlos Molina in his fight against Kirkland in 2012.
Kirkland was well on his way to losing that fight in the 10th, when Molina’s corner brought the stool in a little early in his corner while the round was technically still underway. The referee chose to play it by the book and disqualify Molina rather than giving him a break. As it turns out, it was a BIG break for Kirkland, because he was well behind on the scorecards and likely would have lost the fight.