While most of the boxing public wants to see Miguel Cotto defend his new WBC middleweight title against WBA and IBF champ Gennady Golovkin or face off with Canelo Alvarez, those fights appear to be 2015 options. Cotto does have a December 13 date locked in, however, and it appears Andy Lee is in the running to get the fight.
Canelo Alvarez's team says Cotto in 2014 "not an option."
"Lou DiBella did call me about Andy Lee, and I said, 'Yeah, that would be a good fight.' But, again, the ball is in Cotto's court. It's Cotto's date, and he'll decide what he wants to do," Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said.
"I love Andy Lee. To me, he's a terrific fighter and a great attraction and a nice young man. I have known him since he was with Emanuel. But I can't say what Cotto is going to do. There are a lot of other fighters that he could fight. So, certainly it will be worked out with Todd and Cotto and Gaby."
Strategically, the fight could make sense for Cotto. If he plans on continuing to campaign at middleweight, facing Lee, a big puncher, will provide a good litmus test at how he can handle power at 160 lbs. One would think Cotto has already aced that test by beating Sergio Martinez, but Martinez looked like a shell of his former self.
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Lee fought on the undercard of Cotto vs. Martinez, and was being beaten soundly by John Jackson until Jackson ran into a hard right hand that set him down for good. If Cotto is hit by Lee and feels the power, it's not a stretch to imagine Cotto outboxing him for 12 rounds and focusing back on junior middleweight.
However, if he can withstand true middleweight power, or even deliver his own knockout, then a fight with Golovkin may become more realistic.
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