Why fight for a title you think you're not ready for?

[El Malo.]

Cotto is Puerto Rico's first four-division world champion, a note on his legacy that elevates him into that legendary echelon of Puerto Rican fighters; Cotto's position as one of the sport's stars will give him added leeway on things, but he had incentive to chase the belt (Martinez being a wounded warrior, and the WBC supporting the move, likely didn't hurt thing).

Canelo is fighting Cotto, because doing so (after taking short money on the fight) is believed to be the basis to launch Canelo's starpower into the stratosphere (picking up the WBC belt is nice too, but the belt is clearly secondary/tertiary).

If the WBC is no longer on board with Cotto/Alvarez having their middleweight belt, Cotto and Canelo will likely both happily head back to 154 (with the WBC wining and dining them into going after the WBC 154 belt).

Reality is that such a move would be THE nightmare scenario for K2, especially after turning up their nose at making a deal with Andre Ward, only to see 1)their first Golovkin PPV flop and 2)Ward locking in his own deal to fight Sergey Kovalev instead.

Andy Le, barring a victory over Saunders, can basically write his own check for a fight with Golovkin (If K2 balks, Lee's camp can move on to offers for Jacobs-Quillin winner and EubankJr-O'Sullivan winner)

Pretty much this

[OnePunch]

I don't think Canelo gives two ****s about the MW strap. TBH. He's been trying to fight Cotto since 2013.

then why is he paying 3% (or therebouts) of his purse to the WBC?

[SeekDaGreat]

then why is he paying 3% (or therebouts) of his purse to the WBC?

I don't know. Maybe because it's the biggest grossing fight in Boxing that can be made at this current time without Floyd or Manny involved?

This fight is about money dude. You give a little to get a lot. The sanctioning of the title is just for blow hards to get their rocks off. Looks like it is working too.

[aldo5408]

Because canelo can't make 154

[Larry the boss]

Cotto is Puerto Rico's first four-division world champion, a note on his legacy that elevates him into that legendary echelon of Puerto Rican fighters; Cotto's position as one of the sport's stars will give him added leeway on things, but he had incentive to chase the belt (Martinez being a wounded warrior, and the WBC supporting the move, likely didn't hurt thing).

Canelo is fighting Cotto, because doing so (after taking short money on the fight) is believed to be the basis to launch Canelo's starpower into the stratosphere (picking up the WBC belt is nice too, but the belt is clearly secondary/tertiary).

If the WBC is no longer on board with Cotto/Alvarez having their middleweight belt, Cotto and Canelo will likely both happily head back to 154 (with the WBC wining and dining them into going after the WBC 154 belt).

Reality is that such a move would be THE nightmare scenario for K2, especially after turning up their nose at making a deal with Andre Ward, only to see 1)their first Golovkin PPV flop and 2)Ward locking in his own deal to fight Sergey Kovalev instead.

Andy Le, barring a victory over Saunders, can basically write his own check for a fight with Golovkin (If K2 balks, Lee's camp can move on to offers for Jacobs-Quillin winner and EubankJr-O'Sullivan winner)

Like i have been saying GGG's team is going to have to bend if they want to get into that upper stratosphere in boxing. Because all this A-side talk without actually achieving it has backed them into a corner

[-Kev-]

The name he's adding, to his resume, a future HOF'er, the money.

Also consider that Canelo has wanted Cotto since Cotto was at 154. He's been calling him out for a while. The first time Cotto was on vacation, and Mayweather went on to fight Canelo. So it's a fight that Canelo has been chasing for a while and he feels that the name and money Cotto brings is enough to make him fight Cotto, a small MW, at 155lbs, and have second thoughts of fighting Golovkin, a less financially valuable fight, and more dangerous, at 160lbs. Golovkin can enforce the WBC to strip Canelo since from what I have read you can't make a mandatory fighter fight at a catchweight? So I mean everything points to GGG being able to just become the WBC champ by default if Canelo does not want to fight him at full 160lbs.

[b00g13man]

A side fighters doing A side things.