By: Sean Crose
There’s little doubt that Miguel Cotto has had a Hall of Fame worthy career. Now that his life inside the ring is winding down, though, Cotto wants to go out with a bang. For the former lineal middleweight champ has made it clear he wants the winner of this Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin middleweight superfight. “I will have the last fight of my career in December,” ESPN quotes Cotto as saying, “and fighting the winner would be a good way to go out.”
This may strike some as a bit strange, since Cotto had previously made it clear that he never saw himself as a real middleweight – even when he was middleweight champion of the world.
Indeed, Canelo fought Cotto at a catchweight when they met in 2015 (in a fight Cotto lost by decision). Now that Canelo is fighting as a full middleweight this Saturday, however, it’s doubtful he’ll be willing to drop weight again for Cotto. What’s more, Cotto never seemed too keen on facing Golovkin when he wore the middleweight crown. Despite paying lip service to the possibility, team Cotto never did agree to face the feared Kazakh in the ring.
With that in mind, there’s little doubt that a fight featuring the 41-5 Cotto against either Canelo or Golovkin would be a notable event. Cotto’s fight with Canelo was certainly competitive and past glory alone would draw eyeballs to a bout with the fighter known as GGG. Still, at thirty-six years of age, Cotto is widely viewed as a fighter on the downslide.
Golovkin, at thirty-five, may be just a year younger, but the general consensus, should a fight between the two be made, would surely be that Golovkin hasn’t aged as Cotto has (provided, of course, that Golovkin looks sharp against Canelo this weekend).
For fans, the more appealing of the two options for Cotto might be Golovkin. A second Canelo fight would bring with it a sense of been there/done that, especially when one considers that the first fight, although entertaining, was far from a classic. Yet Golovkin, with his frightening knockout power, would make for an intriguing – or frightening – matchup. Even after a very sharp performance last month against the heroic Yoshihiro Kamegai, Cotto would no doubt enter the ring a heavy underdog. Would Cotto truly be willing to face Golovkin, however, or is he simply keeping his name in the media during fight week?
Furthermore, would a December fight with either man be a real possibility when one considers such things as recuperation and contract clauses?
Time may well provide the answers.