By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Bob Arum’s army of critics will consider this the polarizing promoter’s way of dismissing a fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. wouldn’t allow Arum’s Top Rank Inc. to co-promote.

Nevertheless, Arum said he doesn’t think Mayweather will consider a rematch against Miguel Cotto after watching Cotto dominate Sergio Martinez on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

“You got an AK?,” a laughing Arum said early Sunday morning when asked what it would take for Mayweather to consider a Cotto rematch. “I’ll hold it up to Floyd and say, ‘Will you fight Cotto again?’ Are you crazy? He’s afraid to fight Manny. You think he’d fight Cotto?”

Mayweather-Cotto was maybe more competitive than many fight fans expected, but Mayweather won their May 2012 fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas by rather large margins on all three scorecards (118-110, 117-111, 117-111). That 12-rounder was contested at the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds, but Mayweather might view a shot at adding a middleweight title to his legacy enough incentive to encounter Cotto again. The 5-foot-7 Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) is an inch shorter than Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs), but if size is an issue the fight technically would only need to be contested at 154½ pounds for the WBC to sanction it as a middleweight title fight.

That, Arum added, wouldn’t be enough to make Mayweather accept it, either.

“If Cotto, with Freddie Roach, fought Mayweather again it would be no contest,” Arum said. “Mayweather wouldn’t have a [bleeping] chance.”

Puerto Rico’s Cotto improved to 2-0 under Roach’s tutelage by dropping Argentina’s Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KOs) four times on his way to a 10th-round technical knockout win. Cuba’s Pedro Diaz trained Cotto for his loss to Mayweather two years ago.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.