By Miguel Rivera
Former four division world champion Miguel Cotto is planning to retire from the sport on December 31, 2017.
Cotto has been out of the ring since losing a twelve round unanimous decision to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez last November at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Their fight generated 900,000 purchases on pay-per-view - which is the closest any boxing event has come to reaching a million PPV buys since last May's mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
There have been whispers of a rematch between Cotto and Canelo for 2017.
Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Robert Diaz, a few weeks ago, said his company was very interested in making a rematch between Canelo (48-1-1, 34KOs) and Cotto (40-5, 33KOs).
According the Puerto Rican superstar, there has been no communication from Golden Boy regarding a rematch with Canelo, but there have been some preliminary talks between Top Rank and Roc Nation Sports for a fight between Cotto and Timothy Bradley. Top Rank, who have Bradley, are interested in doing that fight.
"I'm under a fight contract with the people of Roc Nation and 2017 is the final year for Miguel Cotto in boxing. The days are numbered for Miguel Cotto," said Cotto to El Vocero. "We will continue to work with the same intensity. The fight [with Canelo] has not been provided because they did not want to do it. They've looked at other places and if they want a fight to materializes - then they have until December, 31 2017 to do so."
"We have worked together many people in boxing. Nobody has anything bad to say about the group of Miguel Cotto. But the ball is in the court of Golden Boy Promotions. They have to consider the deadline is the 31st of December. The weight are issues that can be handled, 154 or 155 pounds, are things that you can always talk bout in the midst of negotiations."
Cotto is not ruling out the possibility of fighting more than once in 2017, but says that he won't fight beyond next year.
"We are open to having more than one fight. But 2017 is our last year. I have no preferable fights here. The only thing I want to talk about right now is the amount of money that can be generated with each name, [and those fights] will become real when we I see a contract on the table," Cotto said.
