By Sean Jones: Earlier today, Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin wished Miguel Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) luck in his fight tonight against Sadam Ali (25-1, 14 KOs), and expressed disappointment that the two never got a chance to fight each other when Miguel held the WBC middleweight title from 2014 to 2015.
Cotto had the chance to face Golovkin after winning the WBC middleweight title in stopping Sergio Martinez in the 10th round on June 7, 2014. Cotto opted for safer waters in defending his WBC belt against Daniel Geale in a catch-weight fight in June 2015, and then defending it against Saul Canelo Alvarez after that.
Cotto could have fought Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) if he had wanted to, but he didn’t have enough interest to make the fight. What’s interesting is Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach has been talking this week about how he wished Cotto had fought Golovkin tonight instead of Sadam Ali. Roach says they had to take Ali as an opponent because Golovkin was unavailable. It sounds like a reasonable excuse for Cotto not facing Golovkin, but what was the excuse for not fighting him in 2014, 2015 or 2016? Cotto had plenty of time to fight Golovkin in the last 3 years, and he didn’t take the fight. If the interest was there by Cotto in a Golovkin fight, surely, he would have signed for the fight during those last 3 years.
@RealMiguelCotto , good luck in your last fight my friend, too bad we never fought when you had the WBC 160 Pound title. pic.twitter.com/WbHBqNjOXN
— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) December 2, 2017
Getting Cotto to agree to a fight with Golovkin probably would have been impossible in the last 3 years, especially with him saying that he’s not a middleweight. That was one of the things that Cotto was saying. After Cotto beat Sergio Martinez to win the WBC middleweight title in 2014, it took away the excuse that he wasn’t a middleweight. If Cotto wasn’t big enough to be a middleweight, then why did he want to fight Sergio Martinez so badly? Why did Cotto defend the WBC middleweight title against Geale and Canelo if he wasn’t big enough?
Roach has gotten a lot of attention this week by telling the boxing media that he would have had Cotto facing Golovkin if not for him being tied down with the Canelo Alvarez rematch. I don’t see why Roach is talking now about Cotto fighting GGG. Where was Roach for the last 3 years when Cotto wasn’t fighting Golovkin? Roach should have made a fuss back then instead of waiting until now to start talking about Golovkin.