A new name has emerged in the race to be Miguel Cotto's next opponent in June-former middleweight titlist Daniel Geale. The names who have been most talked about, Cornelius "K-9" Bundrage and Jorge Sebastian Heiland have not generated much excitement, so Cotto's camp may be targeting more respected names in the 160-pound division.
Bundrage was the early frontrunner, but Top Rank CEO Bob Arum is said to have tried to sabotage that fight by offering Bundrage a chance to face Timothy Bradley instead. Bundrage, 41, is the current IBF junior middleweight champion. He is 34-5-0 with 19 knockouts whose biggest win was in October 2014 vs. Carlos Molina. He is known as a tough, but rough fighter without much entertainment value.
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Heiland has generated an even lower opinion from the public. The Argentinian is coming off his biggest win, a 10th-round knockout of Matthew Macklin, but has never fought in the United States before and already has four losses on his resume. Cotto has four losses as well, but they came against far greater competition.
There has also been talk that Cotto's team is having a hard time getting a possible fight with Heiland picked up by HBO. Rumor says in order for HBO to accept that fight, another agreement to fight Canelo Alvarez next must be reached. That would likely mean Cotto would have to drop his WBC belt; Gennady Golovkin is the mandatory challenger for the title after Cotto makes one voluntary defense.
Daniel Geale is more highly rated than either Bundrage or Heiland. He is a legitimate middleweight and former champion in the division. Geale was on the receiving end of a knockout punch from Golovkin in 2014 that was the talk of the sport for weeks, but he rebounded with a one-sided win over Jarrod Fletcher in Australia in December.
Geale is not a big puncher, but he moves a lot inside the ring and is difficult to hit. Ahead of his fight with Golovkin, he was considered the toughest opponent of his career.
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