By Mark Vester
Current WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto is slated to face his Top Rank stablemate, WBO welterweight champ Antonio Margarito, who defends his title against unbeaten Paul Williams on July 14.
Should Margarito lose, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank has several other options in mind. He recently revealed to boxing writer Dan Rafael that if Margarito loses, the two fighters at the top of the list to face Cotto are IBF welterweight champ Kermit Cintron and another Top Rank fighter, slick boxer Joshua Clottey.
A bout with Cintron would depend of him winning his mandatory bout with Walter Matthysse, which also takes place on July 14. Arum is willing to stage either bout on regular HBO, instead of their pay-per-view arm.
"I don't mind doing either of those on HBO rather than HBO PPV," Arum said. "But the fight we would like to do is Shane Mosley [on HBO PPV]."
A fight with Mosley would depends on the outcome of the ongoing mediation between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, who are battling over contractual rights to Manny Pacquiao. Paul Williams would also be in the mix, depending on his performance against Margarito, should he win.
Arum revealed that the Cotto vs. Zab Judah pay-per-view, which took place on June 9 in New York's Madison Square Garden, did about 225,000 buys. Top Rank needed about 150,000 to break even.
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