By Dan Ambrose: Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) is already talking about wanting a rematch against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) despite the fact that he’s not gotten past his scheduled opponent for next month in James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs) on February 25 on HBO PPV.
Cotto, 36, says he wants the best fights, and that if Canelo wants to face him, then he’s ready to fight him again. As far as Cotto is concerned, he beat him in their previous fight in November 2015, and the outcome of the fight was a controversial one.
Few boxing fans would agree to that. Cotto appeared to clearly lose the fight to Canelo, as he didn’t have the size to compete with Golden Boy Promotion’s Mexican star.
“I’m here for the best fights and the best fighters out there so if Canelo Alvarez wants to fight, to clear what happened November 2015, they know where to find me,” said Cotto about him wanting a rematch. ”It was close. We orchestrated the plan in a perfect way and we believe that we were the winners of the fight.”
Unlike Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Cotto doesn’t have to work hard to get the fight against Canelo, because that’s a match that Golden Boy has already penciled in for December this year. They want the second contest between Canelo and Cotto, because it’s one that will make a lot of money on HBO PPV.
It’s also a fight that Canelo will have a great chance of winning due to his huge weight advantage. Canelo looked at least 20 pounds heavier than Cotto in that fight. Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach said Cotto came into the fight in the low 160s. Roach says that Canelo looked to be around 185lbs on the night. He says he thinks he rehydrated 30 pounds after making weight at 155lbs for their catchweight fights.
Roach is still holding out hope that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will return to the sport to face Cotto – and Manny Pacquiao – in rematches. Cotto lost to Mayweather Jr. by a 12 round unanimous decision in a close fight in 2012. Mayweather took a lot of punishment in that fight before pulling away in the last four rounds as Cotto faded badly.
“Floyd Mayweather Jr. would be a great fight. Mayweather is retired right now, but that may change,” said Roach to primerahora.com about a rematch between Cotto and Mayweather.
Mayweather isn’t likely to make a return to boxing. If he does, he’s not going to fight a ring rusty Cotto, especially with him wasting time fighting the likes of non-relevant fighters like James Kirkland. I don’t know who thought up the idea for Cotto fight Kirkland, but it is not a good look for him. If you want to look in the eyes of the boxing world, you don’t go picking opponents whose career basically deteriorated and fried up six years ago like Kirkland. Instead, you focus on fighting the top guys from this day and age.
If Cotto didn’t want to take a risky fight, then he should have at least picked out someone like Austin Trout so that he could avenge his loss to him from 2012. Cotto was beaten by a 12 round decision by Trout in a mostly one-sided fight. Cotto likes to say that Roach improved him. He could test out that theory by fighting Trout a second time. If Cotto really is improved, then he should be able to beat Trout with no problem.
“I’m going to do the same as always with Freddie Roach,” said Cotto. “We’re going to work hard and have a game plan in mind. We’re going to work for James Kirkland.”
Cotto looked weak against Canelo. If he looks weak against Kirkland, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see an upset on February 25. I don’t even know if you can call it an upset at this point, because Cotto has been a part time fighter since 2012. That’s give years of being part time. It’s a credit to Cotto’s boxing talent that he was still able to fight at a high level the last time he fought in 2015, but he’s clearly not as sharp as he would be if he were fighting two to three times year like normal high level fighters. Kirkland can win this fight based on his size, power and the fact that he’s an aging guy that isn’t putting the time into his career like he used to.