The boxing rumor mill is churning out possibilities for some of the sport's major stars, but the most interesting name is Miguel Cotto, due to his "free agency" status. The Puerto Rican slugger is free to fight anyone from Top Rank or Golden Boy's stable, and at the moment the top two competitors appear to be Sergio Martinez and Canelo Alvarez.
Martinez took the early lead as an HBO fighter; Cotto has long had a relationship with HBO and Top Rank's Bob Arum. Also, as middleweight champion, a fight with Martinez offers Cotto a chance for a title in a fourth weight class, something no Puerto Rican fighter has ever accomplished.
Money talks, though, and the biggest money fight readily available seems to be a March fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, who plans on fighting three times in 2014. "If he [Cotto] wants to make the most money he knows where to go. It's as simple as that," Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said. "And Cotto is a young and smart guy so I know he's going to make the right decision for himself and his career."
The real cash cow, however, would be a rematch with Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. Floyd's last two fights were whitewash wins over Robert Guerrero and Alvarez; his last truly entertaining battle was with Cotto in 2012.
After his demolition of Delvin Rodriguez Cotto's new trainer Freddie Roach said, "Miguel is ready to go against Mayweather. He's in the best shape of his career. He returned to the style that he needed to go back to. And as Miguel said last week, if I had been in his corner for the first fight against Mayweather - he would have won."
The Money Team doesn't believe in Cotto as a viable opponent at this time, though. Floyd Mayweather Sr. derided Cotto's big win over Rodriguez earlier in the month.
"I think it was a good performance for the guy he had in front of him," Mayweather Sr. said. "He could have did that [defeated Rodriguez] anyway without Freddie Roach, and I'm being for real with you. ... Who in the hell is that guy who he fought? Do you know who he is? Cotto did what Cotto's supposed to do. ... He [Cotto] got to fight somebody, he ain't fought nobody. Until he fights somebody, he can forget about getting another shot with any damn body."
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