Months of speculation have ended this week, with Miguel Cotto, the WBC middleweight champion, settling on Daniel Geale as an opponent for a June 6 fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Cotto's title will be up for grabs, but the fight will be contested at a 157-pound catch weight.
Geale is a former middleweight champion, but his recent track record is spotty and may indicate he's fading. He is 2-2 over his last four fights, with the two losses coming in the two highest-profile bouts. In 2013 he dropped a split decision to Darren Barker on HBO, and last year he was devastated in three rounds by WBA and IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
After both of those losses, Geale rebounded with convincing victories over lesser-known opponents. Most recently he dominated fellow Australian fighter Jarrod Fletcher.
Cotto has received criticism since defeating Sergio Martinez in June 2014 to take the WBC belt. Martinez was favored going into the fight, but Cotto knocked him down three times in the first round en route to a dominant victory in nine rounds. He has not fought since then, however, and had allowed talks with Canelo Alvarez for a pay-per-view fight in May to break down.
Some believe Cotto was banking on talks between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao to fall apart, allowing him to sneak in for a big-money Mayweather rematch. That didn't pan out though, and a frustrated Alvarez removed himself from the talks and agreed to fight James Kirkland on May 9 on HBO instead.
Cotto was criticized further for refusing to entertain a bout with Golovkin, who is the mandatory challenger for the WBC crown. After fighting Geale, Cotto has to fight Golovkin or give up his titles. The perception that he is ducking Golovkin is not helped by the 157-pound catch weight for this fight. Cotto is small for the middleweight division, and he may not think he is hardy enough at his age to withstand Golovkin's power and pressure.
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