Things have not broken Miguel Cotto's way after he gambled on Floyd Mayweather Jr. selecting him for his upcoming May 2 fight. Cotto was in serious talks to defend his WBC middleweight title against Canelo Alvarez in May, but Alvarez walked away from the negotiating table and agreed to face James Kirkland instead.
Cotto was considered the Plan B for Mayweather if an agreement couldn't be reached with Manny Pacquiao, but as the boxing world already knows the super fight between those two is on.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said that Cotto hasn't been a priority lately with all attention on completing Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, but a June comeback seems likely.
"At this particular point we haven't focused on it," Arum said. He also noted it's important to Cotto that trainer Freddie Roach can focus solely on him, and not split time between him and Pacquiao.
"I think that one of the things is that Cotto wanted to make sure that Freddie Roach was available to him full time and not have to divide his attention with Pacquiao, would be his priority because his fight would be coming up. So if the Pacquiao fight is May 2, he'll have plenty of time along with Freddie to prepare for a fight."
Arum didn't give any indication of who a possible opponent for a June bout may be, but some of the options may be underwhelming compared to what would have been a huge showdown vs. Alvarez.
Arum did not even guarantee that Cotto's next fight would be on pay-per-view. "It always depends on the opponent," Arum said.
Some names that have been tossed around are Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios and Timothy Bradley, both welterweights that would be making big jumps in weight. A pay-per-view option could be Amir Khan, who has said he'd be glad to face Cotto at a 155-pound catch weight.
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