By Nate Anderson: After waiting for eons for WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) to show any interest in fighting Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs), it finally looks as if it’s about to come about after Antonio’s 6th round destruction of IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron. Both fighters are looking for the fight to occur on January 26th, at Madison Square Garden, in New York. However, before it can happen, Margarito, 30, may have to defend his newly won title against the #1 challenger in the IBF, Joshua Clottey. Margarito is no stranger to Clottey, having struggled to beat him by a 12-round unanimous decision in December 2006.
Obviously, this is a fight that Maragarito would prefer not to have to fight if at all possible. Clottey fought him very closely, especially in the first half of the fight where he was beating Margarito and making him look slow. According to the latest news, promoter Bob Arum is counting on Margarito giving up his IBF belt so that he could fight Cotto for his WBA welterweight belt. In doing so, Margarito could avoid what would likely be a very tough fight with Clottey, one in which there would be no guarantee of certainty that he would emerge the victor or uninjured, for that matter.
Undefeated World Boxing Association welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KOs) will be making his fourth title defense when he takes on Alfonso Gomez (18-3-2, 8 KOs) on April 12th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Gomez, a former star from the reality television series The Contender, is mostly known as being the fighter that retired a badly shop worn Arturo Gatti, stopping him in the 7th round on July 14th, 2007. Other than that, Gomez has little to get excited about. He’s essentially a good 2nd tier fighter, one that will put on a good show against lesser B-level fighters, but will be hopelessly outclassed against top notch opposition such as Cotto. 
In the latest boxing news, World Boxing Council welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KOs) said to Franklin McNeil of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, “He (Miguel Cotto) knows he can’t beat me. He knows. Cotto’s remedy to beat me is pressure, pressure, pressure. That’s not the remedy to beat me.” Apparently, Mayweather, 30, is more interested in taking 2008 off to pursue his other interests, such as boxing promotion, music and film. 
As lnternational Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (43-0, 31 KOs) prepares for his upcoming showdown with Floyd Mayweather on December 8th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Hatton took time out for a chat session at ESPN. During the session, Hatton, 29, when asked whether he’d like to fight Miguel Cotto, said ” I’d love to fight Miguel Cotto.” There it was point blank, something that the writers like me had been waiting for, a bombshell blast.