Miguel Cotto is slated to face Sergio Martinez on June 7th at Madison Square Garden, his second home, with Puerto Rican boxing history on the line. Cotto vs. Martinez is a strong featured bout, and another compelling brawl may be taking shape for the undercard, with Andy Lee rumored to be fighting Matthew Macklin.
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Macklin, whose record stands at 30-5-0 with 20 knockouts, is not considered so much a major player in the middleweight class as he is an entertaining fighter. He's 2-2 in his last four bouts, although the two losses were to Martinez and current knockout king Gennady Golovkin.
The fight vs. Martinez was stopped in the 11th round, but Macklin was competitive throughout and even sent "Maravilla" to the canvas in Round 7.
Lee was rumored to be taking on "GGG" on April 26th, but the fight has been shelved due to Golovkin pulling out of the date after the death of his father. It is custom in Golovkin's native Kazakhstan to go through a 40-day mourning period, leaving him unable to take the match.
In addition, Golovkin is rumored to be the ideal candidate to be the next opponent for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who knocked off Brian Vera last Saturday. That fight could be a potential PPV bout, and fully entrench Golovkin as one of the sport's bright stars.
Lee is 31-2-0, with 22 knockouts; he fell to Chavez Jr. in his most notable fight via seventh-round TKO, and doesn't own many victories over fighters familiar to the casual boxing fan.
According to reports the winner of Lee vs. Macklin could potentially be in line for a shot at the winner of Cotto and Martinez, although the headline fight's victor may be in line for even greater opportunities, especially Cotto.
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Should Cotto become the first fighter in Puerto Rican history to win four titles in four weight classes, he would probably be in line for a mega fight with Canelo Alvarez, in the biggest Puerto Rico-Mexico clash since Felix Trinidad defeated Oscar De La Hoya.
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