by David P. Greisman
The two fighters Miguel Cotto was asked about following his technical knockout win over Delvin Rodriguez were the same two fighters Cotto had been asked about beforehand: former junior-middleweight titleholder Canelo Alvarez and middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.
Regarding Canelo: “For that fight to occur, Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions would have to sit down and talk about it,” Cotto said at the post-fight press conference. “It’s not closing doors, but we need to talk about it.”
Top Rank and Golden Boy have not been working with each other for some time due to their ongoing promotional “cold war.” Nevertheless, Todd duBoef of Top Rank said that wouldn’t necessarily preclude a fight between Cotto and Canelo.
“When there’s a time and a place, we’ll sit down,” duBoef said. “Our interest is obviously with Miguel and what will be the best in the sport for him. We’re not going to get in the way.”
He brought up the 1999 fight between Felix Trinidad, who was with Don King, and Oscar De La Hoya, who was with Top Rank. Beforehand, people had said King and Top Rank’s Bob Arum wouldn’t be able to work together.
Cotto’s previous fight under a Top Rank banner had been his December 2011 rematch with Antonio Margarito. Last year he fought in two Golden Boy events, losing to Floyd Mayweather and Austin Trout.
Cotto-Rodriguez had Top Rank as the lead promoter. duBoef told BoxingScene that Cotto is not under contract with Top Rank.
“Our relationship is bigger than a contract,” he said. “We had a very sincere and very candid conversation over the last eight months. We’re a pretty good combination. Look at how he looked tonight.”
As for Martinez, Cotto said that fighting for the middleweight championship and potentially “being the first Puerto Rican to achieve four world titles in four different weight divisions is something attractive to me.” He said he’d eventually sit down with his team and discuss a Martinez fight, as well as other options.
He declined to say what he sees in Martinez that he could possibly take advantage of, and what he feels Martinez does well.
“I didn’t think about Sergio as an opponent yet,” Cotto said. “It’s just speculation.”
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com