Mayweather-Cotto 2 possible now

By Boxing News - 01/17/2015 - Comments

floyd02By Chris Williams: Now that the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) has decided that he no longer wanted to work on negotiating a fight against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs), it now puts the wheels in motion for what could be a rematch between Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) on May 2nd.

The Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight seems to have reached a freeze in the negotiations for some unexplained reason, and that could mean that it’s a big enough obstacle for Mayweather to want to move on.

With Cotto now being freed up from the negotiations with Canelo, it leaves the potential for Cotto to be the backup option for Mayweather to fight on May 2nd.

For Mayweather, this is really good news because it means that he doesn’t have to get a fight contract shoved down his throat for the Pacquiao fight if it’s not to his liking. Having Cotto available for a fight on May 2nd, means that Mayweather can walk away from the Pacquiao negotiations and wash his hands of it.

The things that were sticking points in the negotiations for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight might not still be there after Mayweather faces Cotto in a rematch on May 2nd, and if they still are there, then Mayweather can always face Cotto again or perhaps fight Canelo if he can beat a top name and prove that he’s worthy of a second fight against Mayweather.

Cotto may have been taking the slow approach with his negotiations for the Canelo fight knowing that if the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations went sour, he’d be able to slide on in and take the fight out from under the nose of Pacquiao. To be sure, it’s a better paying fight for Cotto than him facing Canelo.

It’s also a fight that would likely bring in more pay-per-view buys due to the high interest in a second fight between Mayweather and Cotto. Their first fight in 2012 was an exciting one that was decided in the last four rounds when Cotto ran out of gas. But for the first 8 rounds, Cotto gave Mayweather all he could handle as the two fighters fought each other to a perfect standstill. The fight brought in 1.5 million pay-per-view buys and it was highly successful. However, Canelo fought on the undercard and that obviously helped things.

If Mayweather can beat Cotto to pick up the WBC middleweight title, it would be Mayweather’s sixth division world title. The thing is Mayweather isn’t even trying to accumulate world titles like Pacquiao did, and he’s not been doing it with catch-weight handicaps either.



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