Welterweight Tournament to Conclude in 2007?

[-Antonio-]

Dan Rafael actually wrote in his recent column that Quintana had a secret deal with Mosley for March 07 if he were to win. He was going to vacate the belt and do that fight instead.

[snoopy360]

I just wanna see cotto fight again, I don't care who it is.

[borikua]

Dan Rafael actually wrote in his recent column that Quintana had a secret deal with Mosley for March 07 if he were to win. He was going to vacate the belt and do that fight instead.

Yeah man I just saw that...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=2685713

Rafael's remark: Cotto was simply sensational. He performed like a star, won his second world title after moving up from junior welterweight, earned his first seven-figure payday ($1.1 million) and, at age 26, set himself up for monster future business.

There was nothing not to like about the fight and kudos to Showtime for helping make it happen. The first round was nothing but blazing action and the rest of the fight was also highly entertaining. Quintana, 30, fighting his more heralded Puerto Rican countryman, was a virtual unknown before a June upset of Joel "Love Child" Julio. And although he came up short against Cotto, Quintana covered himself in glory with the way he fought. The mere fact that he got to his feet after one of the most savage body shots we have ever seen is a testament to his heart. He got up from a second knockdown in the fifth round, too, before the fight was properly stopped after the round.

There's no reason Quintana can't rebound from the loss. Surely, fans will want to see him again after this performance. Of course, Quintana would have rather won because if he had, he probably would have vacated the title in order to face Shane Mosley for a serious payday in February. We're told that a deal had been agreed to for Quintana to forgo a mandatory fight with Oktay Urkal for the Mosley match.

The weight gain seemed to help Cotto, who had a lot of energy and was throwing bombs. He's going to be even better at 147 pounds than he was at 140. Next, he'll face Urkal, who stepped aside to allow the Quintana match to happen. They could fight in late February or March, but after Cotto beats Urkal (which he will), it should be nothing but big fights for Cotto, perhaps even a showdown with Top Rank stablemate and fellow welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito, who won in the co-feature. We're just so excited about potential big Cotto fights, we can hardly contain it. The one question about Cotto's future is this: Will Showtime try to keep him (it does have a position on his next fight) or will HBO, which mistakenly passed on this card, realize the error of its ways and pull out the checkbook?

[DiegoFuego]

My prediction?

April 07:
Margarito loses to Williams
Cotto crushes Urkal
Mosley stops Cintron