By Radio Rahim
The return of former four division world champion Miguel Cotto could be finalized within the next ten days.
Michael Yormark, the president and chief of branding and strategy for Roc Nation, is working on the final details. The opponent has yet to be finalized, but Cotto's return is going to take place on June 24th. The Barclays Center in Brooklyn has been mentioned as frontrunner to host the event.
BoxingScene.com reported last week, that Japan's Yoshihiro Kamegai is a strong candidate to land the opportunity to fight Cotto.
Kamegai has a record of 27-3-2 with 24 knockouts. Two of those setbacks were against Alfonso Gomez and Roberto Guerrero. However, last September he knocked out Jesus Soto Karass in an HBO televised fight.
Cotto, meanwhile, has not fought since November 2015 when he lost a unanimous decision to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.
With HBO backing a pay-per-view event on June 17th between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev, it's practically a given that Cotto's comeback will not take place on a pay-per-view platform.
Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) was scheduled to face James Kirkland in February, on pay-per-view, but the entire event was canceled when Kirkland withdrew with an injury.
The Puerto Rican star indicates that 2017 will be his final year in the sport and he wants to have at least two fights to close the final chapter of his career.
"The date that we've been looking at is June 24th, but we haven't secured a final opponent yet. There are a couple people that we've homed in on right now. Every deal has it's issues and every deal has to go a certain process. Every fight that you try to make takes a little bit of time. Our hopes is that in the next week to ten days, we will secure an opponent for Miguel on the 24th of June," Yormark told BoxingScene.com.
"We're committed to making sure that he not only fights once, but twice before the end of the year. At the end of the day, Miguel Cotto is going to fight who he wants to fight. We're here to support him. We're going to take it one fight at a one. Ideally he fights in June and then again in the fourth quarter. But it has to be the right opponent, the right opportunity."
