By Miguel Rivera
Last week, it was officially announced that Miguel Cotto would once again start working with Golden Boy Promotions.
They worked together in 2012, when Cotto faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Austin Trout. Cotto would then work with Top Rank for a few fights before reaching a deal with Roc Nation Sports in 2015.
Cotto recently parted ways with Roc Nation, with one fight left on their three fight agreement.
The first bout of the new pact between Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) and Golden Boy will take place in three months, when the Puerto Rican star faces Japanese junior middleweight Yoshihiro Kamegai (27-3-2, 24 KO) on Aug. 26 at StubHub Center in Carson, California. HBO will televise.
That fight will have the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) super welterweight belt at stake.
Cotto has been out of the ring since December 2015, when he lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
The new relationship with Golden Boy could certainly open up the door for a rematch with Canelo. Their HBO Pay-Per-View battle generated over 900,000 buys. Canelo will first challenge IBO, WBC, WBA, IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin on September 16th.
Cotto has already stated that it's very possibly, based on the circumstances of his layoff, that he will extend his career to 2018.
"Miguel will surely be in boxing's Hall of Fame. He has been a great champion and still has more give. The fight against Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez was close, it was not one-sided," said Eric Gomez, President of Golden Boy Promotions, to Carlos Gonzalez.
"We believe that (Cotto) has a lot to offer and we are happy to work with him again. We had agreed with Ron Nation for the fight against Kamegai and we had a contract. When Cotto was released (from the Roc Nation deal), it surprised us and we started trying to rescue the fight.
"We investigated different places and we had contemplated doing something in Los Angeles to promote the fight of Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Álvarez. When we spoke to Miguel, we presented the idea of ??making his fight in Los Angeles where he has many Mexican fans. Miguel is an icon and Latinos follow him. It was natural to do it in Los Angeles. We looked at New York and Puerto Rico, but we did not have a lot of time."
"We are discussing the idea of do more business together, to do more fights. And in the coming weeks we will look at everything. It is very possible to do a rematch (with Cotto) against Canelo Alvarez. If Cotto beats Kamegai, we'll see what options there are. Miguel wants big fights. When he decides to retire, we will support him, but for now it's this fight (Kamegai) and other things."