By Miguel Rivera
Former four division world champion Miguel Angel Cotto is staying in shape and preparing himself for his next ring appearance.
Cotto, as announced by the CEO of his promotional company, Bryan Perez, will fight officially on June 24, and will most likely will do so at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Then he hopes to fight one more time, by the end of the year - and then walk away from the sport. Cotto stated on several occasions that he intends to retire by the end of the year and wants to have at least two fights before ending his Hall of Fame career.
Cotto has been out of the ring since losing a twelve round unanimous decision to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in November 2015.
He was scheduled to return to the ring on February 25th in Texas, but the event was canceled when his opponent James Kirkland withdrew with a fractured nose.
The fight with Kirkland was going to be carried by HBO Pay-Per-View.
It appears, according to a report in El Vocero, that Cotto's next outing will not be carried on pay-per-view, but instead is being targeted to become an HBO televised broadcast.
"Miguel will fight on June 24. What we do not have confirmed is still a location," Perez reiterated to the paper. "There are several places. There's New York, Dallas, Las Vegas and even Orlando, Florida. But our preference is, as we have always said, New York."
El Vocero named two potential opponents - including former world champion Brandon 'Bam Bam' Ríos (33-3-1 and 24KO's), who in his last fight in November of 2015 was knocked out in the ninth round by Timothy Bradley. Another name on the table is Japan's Yuki Nonaka, who is the number eight ranked junior middleweight under the World Boxing Organization (WBO).
Cotto has a career record of 40-5 and 33 KO's. In 2015, Cotto signed a lucrative contract with Roc Nation Sports who reportedly guaranteed him a package of $50 million for three bouts and being a co-promoter of events that were being presented in Puerto Rico by artists being managed by Roc Nation.
