WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto is still in talks to defend his belt vs. Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, with the holdup in negotiations reportedly being a dispute about a rematch clause. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman remains confident that boxing fans will see Cotto-Alvarez, a pay-per-view matchup capable of cleansing their pallet of the Mayweather-Pacquiao stinker.
"I am positive we will see it," Sulaiman said. "We have done everything that needs to be done for it to happen."
Canelo wins small battle keeping Cotto fight out of New York
Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Alvarez, placed the blame for the snag at the doorstep of Cotto's manager Gaby Penagaricano.
"All we need is to negotiate one little point. Look Golden Boy's on board, Roc Nation Sports is on board, Canelo's on board, Cotto's on board, Vegas is on board. The only person we're waiting for is Gaby Penagaricano," De La Hoya said. That little point is a rematch clause, according to De La Hoya to boxingscene.com.
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Cotto recently defended his manager on a Spanish radio station, calling him a nina malcriada, which translates to "spoiled little girl," according to Boxing Scene.
Sulaiman also threw a wrinkle into these talks by stating unequivocally that there will be no immediate rematch, at least not for the WBC title. The mandatory challenger for the belt is rising star Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, who already holds the WBA and IBO middleweight titles, and is fighting October 17 for the IBF strap vs. David Lemieux. This fight was supposed to be Golovkin's, but Cotto has been avoiding him.
First, he used up his voluntary defense to fight Daniel Geale, whom Golovkin knocked out in 2014, and then sold the WBC on this big-money fight vs. Alvarez, a junior middleweight coming up to a 155-pound catch weight. This catch weight is five pounds less than the 160-pound middleweight limit.
"The winner must fight Gennady Golovkin, then after that they can do what they want," Sulaiman said.
Either Cotto or Alvarez would have the option of dropping the belt should they prefer to pursue an immediate rematch, and Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez firmly believes Cotto won't fight Golovkin.
"If Cotto wins against Canelo, I don't think Cotto wants anything to do with Golovkin. I think he's running from Golovkin but it doesn't matter, we're not after Cotto, we're after the WBC belt," Sanchez said.
"If Canelo wins, I would say it's a strong possibility that Canelo fights us for a lot of different reasons," Sanchez said. "I think Oscar [De La Hoya] wanting to make the best fights, but more than anything else I think that Canelo himself being a young gun and having that Mexican following, he's not going to shy away from a tough fight."
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