By Keith Idec
No matter how much Miguel Cotto says otherwise, Daniel Geale believes the heavily favored Puerto Rican icon is overlooking him as their June 6 middleweight title fight nears.
Cotto and his handlers have acknowledged that they’ve had preliminary discussions with Canelo Alvarez’s representatives regarding a potential fall showdown that has generated great interest among boxing fans. Australia’s Geale wants nothing more than to destroy the planned pay-per-view bout between Mexico’s Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) and Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) by pulling off an upset next weekend at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
“I definitely believe they’re looking past me,” Geale said on a conference call Thursday. “Miguel and his camp are definitely looking past me. They’ve chosen me as probably not one of the super-strong middleweights at the moment. And especially bringing me down a few pounds [to the contracted limit of 157], they think they’re going to weaken me more. So they’re definitely looking past me and looking for some big-money fights, which is exciting for me.”
The 34-year-old Cotto, a four-division champion, and the 34-year-old Geale (31-3, 16 KOs), a former IBF middleweight title-holder, will fight for Cotto’s WBC middleweight championship. HBO will televise their scheduled 12-round fight at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
