Marquez Expects Cotto To Drop Down, Chase Belt at 154

By Carlos Boogs

Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez is expecting Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33KOs) to return to the middleweight division.

Cotto, who held world titles at junior welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight, moved up to middleweight last June and stopped Sergio Martinez to capture the WBC championship.

He then faced Daniel Geale earlier this year, at a catch-weight of 157-pounds, and picked up another knockout win. This past Saturday he faced Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in a catch-weight bout at 155-pounds.

Canelo was much bigger, much stronger and won a twelve round decision at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Marquez would like to see them fight again, but sees Cotto - who weighed 153.5 for his last two fights - reentering the 154 ranks to chase another title there.

"I think a [Cotto-Canelo] rematch would be good and it would be interesting for both and the fans, but we got to see what Cotto thinks. He doesn’t want to be middleweight champion. He vacated the belt. I think he will drop down to 154 and look for a title there," Marquez said.

Marquez did not agree with the wide scoring in favor of Canelo. He credits Canelo with winning, but felt it was closer. The judges saw it 119-109, 117-111, 118-110.

"I think here today the judges did a bad job, but I will give credit to what Canelo did and he’s getting better defensively and he did well. He didn’t work his combinations consistently, but Canelo won the fight," Marquez said.