Miguel Cotto isn't facing Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin in October, but if he wants to keep his WBC middleweight title he may have to face Golovkin next year. According to reports, the WBC has ordered Cotto to face the winner of an October bout between Golovkin and Marco Antonio Rubio.
While Cotto took apart Sergio Martinez to win the belt, he is considered small for the 160-lb. division, and Martinez, in retrospect, looked well past his prime after dealing with numerous injuries.
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Cotto's team has been openly angling for a Mexico vs. Puerto Rico showdown against Alvarez for Cinco de Mayo weekend in 2015, but a forced bout against Golovkin or Rubio throws a monkey wrench into those plans. Prior to this news, Cotto's own trainer, Freddie Roach, dismissed Golovkin's viability based on his low profile.
"Right now with Cotto, we've got to fight Canelo Alvarez. He's making a lot of noise out there and selling a lot of tickets," Roach said. "You've got Peter Quillin out there [for Golovkin], and Daniel Jacobs. There's some top 10 guys out there, but he hasn't fought any of them yet. In his last fight, he fought a good boxer, but he obviously couldn't punch that hard and was scared to death in round one."
Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez thinks otherwise.
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"You have to think Golovkin's name will come up when Miguel begins opponent discussions, because Cotto is the so-called lineal middleweight champion. And if not, Cotto needs to answer why not, at least make Golovkin an offer, maybe we can turn it down, or maybe not," Sanchez told TheSweetScience.com.
As a tune-up fight, Cotto is scheduled to fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City in December against an opponent still to be determined. Rumor has it the frontrunner is Andy Lee, who won via knockout on the undercard of Cotto vs. Martinez.
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