A dream fight between Canelo Alvarez and WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto is dead, according to both sides. The two camps couldn't come to an agreement on financial differences, and Alvarez's side decided to go in another direction.
"The deal is off the table with Cotto," Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya said. "They did not accept. So Canelo decided to move on. We had a deadline. We had our fifth deadline [Friday night], and Canelo has decided, because Cotto and [attorney] Gaby [Penagaricano] turned down the deal, he is obviously not going to be waiting for nobody."
Cotto's side has indicated disappointment that Golden Boy has pulled out of the talks, but did not say they were upset with the proceedings.
"I did speak to Oscar late [Friday night]. He said, 'We have to make a deal.' I said, 'We're not there yet. If you have to move on, I respect that. If you have to move, you have to move,'" Gaby Pengaricano, Cotto's adviser said.
"It's always the financial side. There was no agreement on that. I don't know what would have happened if we had more time. If Oscar doesn't have more time, he doesn't have more time. It's a great fight, but Miguel doesn't need it for his career.
"So if it doesn't happen, so be it. He's OK. No problem. If Oscar needs to move he needs to move. We're not going to go back to them. We'll huddle and meet Miguel on Tuesday, and we will start planning."
Another reason Cotto may not be shedding tears, however, is the looming potential for a big-money rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. The pound-for-pound champion is in the midst of talks with Manny Pacquiao, but previous efforts to make that happen have famously gone down in flames.
Cotto is a high-profile fallback option if Pacquiao talks fall through, but if Mayweather decides to face him he can expect to compete with an Alvarez card.
"There's several opponents, so it depends what opponent we choose, then we'll decide if it's pay-per-view or HBO," De La Hoya said. "If Mayweather-Pacquiao happens then that's the only fight that out of respect for the fans, that we will move from [May 2]. But if Mayweather fights Cotto or Amir [Khan] then we're going."
[ESPN]
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