By Steve Kim
It has been reported by various sources that WBO junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto will face United States Olympian Sadam Ali at New York's Madison Square Garden on December 2nd, in what the Puerto Rican superstar says will be the last fight of his illustrious career.
"We have a verbal agreement with Sadam Ali," confirmed Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes both Cotto and Ali.
According to Gomez - "none of the other champions at 154 were available and we actually offered the fight to some of the top welterweights and super welterweights and either they were not available or they took other fights."
There is a card this weekend at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn that features a host of the top 154-pounders in the world - including WBA/IBO champion Erislandy Lara, IBF champion Jarrett Hurd and WBC champion Jermell Charlo.
Gomez also noted that the likes of Errol Spence, Mikey Garcia, Lamont Peterson, James Kirkland, Lucas Matthysse were either unavailable or declined the opportunity to face Cotto.
Ali, a native of Brooklyn, is a career welterweight with a record of 25-1 (14 KO's) and has rebounded with three victories since getting stopped in nine rounds by Jessie Vargas back in March of 2016 for the vacant WBO welterweight belt.
This fight is scheduled to be televised by HBO.
"This week we're going to close it," Gomez told BoxingScene.com
Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) returned to the ring back in August, in what was his first bout since losing a twelve round decision to Canelo Alvarez in November of 2015. He won a twelve round unanimous decision over a game Yoshihiro Kamegai to capture the vacant WBO junior middleweight title, which was vacated by Canelo when he made his official move to the middleweight division.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.