By Miguel Rivera
Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto is still very interested in facing Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in a rematch before the end of the year.
This past Thursday, Cotto (40-5, 33 KO's) confirmed that his pay-per-view return was called off, because opponent James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KO's) had suffered a fractured nose in training camp. The fight was scheduled for February 25th in Texas.
Cotto has been inactive since losing a twelve round decision to Canelo in November 2015 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Cotto is planning to retire by the end of the year and intends to fight at least two more times before walking away from the sport. With the recent cancellation of the Kirkland fight, his next return is unknown.
Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) is scheduled to fight again on May 6th, when he faces Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Cotto believes he was robbed in the first fight, as does his trainer Freddie Roach. The pay-per-view generated around 900,000 buys, which is still by far the largest number since the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega-fight in May 2015.
He's been itching for a rematch since their first meeting.
Canelo and his handlers have mentioned the idea of a rematch with Cotto to close out the year. What they would like to do, is do the fight with Chavez Jr. in May, then middleweight king Gennady Golovkin in September, and then Cotto in December.
If they want to discuss a rematch, Cotto is ready to talk.
"The people who handle Canelo... and [his promoter] Oscar de la Hoya.... they know how professional I am. If they want do some kind of a fight, they know they have until December 31. If they don't come and we don't end up fighting, it was not because I did not want to," Cotto told Jose Sanchez.
