Miguel Cotto emphatically confirmed that fans should be excited for a showdown vs. Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night, knocking out middleweight Daniel Geale in the fourth round of his first WBC title defense. Cotto said after the fight that Alvarez is his next target.
Alvarez scored his own thrilling knockout on May 9, when he dismantled James Kirkland at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Kirkland, a feared puncher, gave Alvarez a lot to handle, but he was too reckless to withstand Alvarez's precision counters.
Cotto fought differently; he stalked Geale, who weighed 182 pounds on fight night, and hurt him with hooks to the body, and eventually hooks to the chin. Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Alvarez, was already talking about Cotto-Alvarez before Cotto had even won.
"It's the biggest fight since Pacquiao-Mayweather," De La Hoya said. "The difference is you're guaranteed action."
WBA and IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin was in attendance, and he is the WBC's mandatory challenger. Cotto has been reluctant to face the Kazakh knockout artist though, and he could potentially vacate his WBC title rather than face him. In his post-fight interview with Max Kellerman Cotto admitted that he's not a true middleweight, perhaps an admission that he'd be in over his head vs. Golovkin.
Cotto and his trainer Freddie Roach still believe Golovkin doesn't have the name value to make it worth the risk of fighting him. Ahead of the fight, Roach made comments about Manny Pacquiao's inability to recognize Golovkin.
"When Manny Pacquiao walked by and didn't know who he was, I was surprised because most fighters know other fighters and Manny Pacquiao had no idea who he was," Roach said. "If Manny Pacquiao doesn't know who one of the best fighters pound-for-pound in the world is, there's a lot of people who don't know."
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