Miguel Cotto vs. Daniel Geale is official for June 6 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It will be Cotto's first defense of his WBC middleweight title, and may be his only one. Rumor has it that if Cotto wins vs. Geale, and Canelo Alvarez defeats James Kirkland on May 9, the two will square off in the fall.
Cotto made no secret of his distaste for a matchup with WBA and IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin this summer, but Golovkin is the official mandatory challenger for Cotto's WBC belt. The WBC stated that Cotto would be allowed one voluntary defense, which is Geale, before he must fight Golovkin. If it's true that an agreement is in place to fight Alvarez this fall, Cotto will likely have to drop his middleweight strap.
There are strong rumors that HBO, which now carries Alvarez's fights, only agreed to televise Cotto vs. Geale on the condition that he fight Alvarez in the fall if both fighters win. The title belt is important to Cotto's legacy because it sets him apart in Puerto Rico's rich boxing tradition as the only Puerto Rican fighter with four titles in four weight divisions. Financially, the belt doesn't mean much for a Cotto-Alvarez clash.
Cotto is still the top active Puerto Rican fighter and one of the biggest draws in the sport. Alvarez has arguably surpassed Cotto as a draw; he has an equally loud and sizable Mexican fan base, and was half of the highest-grossing fight in boxing history vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Furthermore, there is a deep rivalry between Mexican and Puerto Rican boxing, and this would be the biggest fight of Mexican and Puerto Rican fighters since Oscar De La Hoya fought Felix "Tito" Trinidad.
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