By Rick Reeno
Things are looking good for a fall showdown between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33KOs) of Puerto Rico and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (45-1-1, 32KOs).
Outside of Floyd Mayweather facing Manny Pacquiao, Cotto-Canelo has long been regarded as the second biggest fight on the boxing landscape.
Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya is highly motivated to finalize the terms with Roc Nation Sports, who promote Cotto.
It appears the HBO Pay-Per-View event is going to land on a date in November, but nothing is set in stone.
The fight is in high demand, with Las Vegas, New York and Texas (among other areas) making serious financial plays to secure the fight.
"Golden Boy and Roc Nation, we have serious meetings next week with various sites. We're flying to Vegas, we'll speak to Texas and New York with the Barclays Center. Everyone is interested. Hopefully we'll have something nailed down in the next couple of weeks," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.
"The fact that both fighters sell and the fact that people know this is a real action fight, has created so much interest whether you talk about the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, whether you talk about San Antonio, the Barclays Center - everybody is very, very interested because they know the fight will sell, because it's guaranteed action."
"Nothing is done, nothing is signed yet, but we're very optimistic that the fight will get done."
There are high pay-per-view expectations for the match. Many are confident the showdown, if marketed correctly, will crack the 1 million buy mark. De La Hoya plans to leave no stone unturned in the marketing campaign and pre-fight promotion, and feels strongly that Cotto-Canelo can reach the 2 million buy mark.
"We are going to treat this fight the way it should be treated. I've always been a Nostradamus when it comes to predicting pay-per-view numbers and I can see this fight generating close to 2 million homes," De La Hoya said.