On Saturday Miguel Cotto retained his WBC middleweight title by walking through Daniel Geale as impressively as Gennady Golovkin did last summer at Madison Square Garden. Golovkin was in attendance for Cotto's power display, but when asked about fighting Golovkin, Cotto stammered through a response.
"Ahh, Ahh," Cotto said before finally blurting out "Why not?" It wasn't a convincing response, and even less so once Cotto admitted that he was not a true middleweight-regardless of the lineal belt he holds-and made no apologies for imposing catch weights.
When he defeated Sergio Martinez for the title Cotto imposed a 159-pound weight restriction, one pound lower than the middleweight limit. Against Geale, he made the challenger drop to 157 pounds; Geale made the weight, but looked skeletal at the weigh-in and ballooned to 182 pounds in street clothes for fight night.
Golovkin is the mandatory challenger for the WBC belt, but the WBC has said they'll sanction a title fight between Cotto and Canelo Alvarez if both men will guarantee that Golovkin will face the winner in their next bout. Cotto hasn't committed to that, and speculation is that he'd rather drop the belt than be forced in the ring with Golovkin.
Randy Gordon, former chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission and current host of Sirius XM's At The Fights told Boxing Scene that Cotto will never face Golovkin.
"Cotto's no dummy," Gordon said. "He can probably make more money fighting Alvarez than he can GGG. Plus he has a bit of a chance of beating Alvarez. He has no chance to beat GGG."
Gordon suggested Cotto seek a fight vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. over an Alvarez or a Golovkin fight, as it would be the biggest payday he can hope for.
"I would still hunt for a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight, but between Alvarez and GGG it's got to be Alvarez."
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