By Edward Chaykovsky
Last week, the president of the World Boxing Organization (WBO), Francisco 'Paco' Valcarcel, discussed his organization's willingness to sanction world title fight for former four division champion Miguel Cotto.
Cotto has been inactive since last November, when he lost a twelve round unanimous decision to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
After pushing back his return several times, Cotto is slated to return in early 2017 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. He also plans to drop back in weight to 154-pounds. His fights at middleweight were never contested at the full division limit of 160.
Canelo has since vacated the WBC world title and moved down in weight, and last month he captured the WBO junior middleweight title with a knockout of unbeaten Liam Smith (23-1, 13KOs).
Canelo is likely heading up to the full middleweight limit in the very near future - a move that is going to leave the WBO title up for grabs.
Valcarcel would embrace a title bout involving Cotto.
"I think that Canelo is on his way to 160 pounds to evaluate the possibility of a match against Gennady Golovkin in September. But that's what I think might happen," Valcarcel said to El Vocero. "Miguel Cotto is ranked with us. The doors are open. The day Canelo goes up, of course there is the opportunity for Miguel [to fight for the title]. He is there."
Smith is looking to get right back in the title mix. He believes Cotto's team, and the WBO, would be very interested with his involvement in that scenario.
"I'm sure after the Canelo fight, it's a fight [Cotto's team would] love. They will probably want to do a better job on me than Canelo did. It sounds crazy from my point of view, but from their point of view they would wanna do a better job on me than Canelo did, so they might be happy with that fight," Smith told IFL TV.
"I'm sure if Canelo gives that title up, and then someone goes to the WBO and says 'how about Smith and Cotto [for the vacant 154 title]?' - I think the WBO would be happy with that."
