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Catchweight the Topic At Cotto-Geale Presser in NYC
A pretty fair middleweight tangle should unfold on Saturday night in Brooklyn, but the main topic of conversation at the press conference in Manhattan days out from the clash between Miguel Cotto and Aussie challenger Daniel Geale was the "catch weight" clause in the contract between the two pugilists.
Cotto holds the WBC 160 pound belt, which he wrested from Sergio Martinez last summer. But he's "requested" that Geale hit the scale Friday as a sub-middleweight, that the 31-3 hitter adhere to a 157 pounds or less limit.
Geale, a soft spoken, most unfailingly polite sort, told the media he is OK with that, but his promoter wasn't as accepting. Gary Shaw took pains to tell Cotto he respects the heck out of him, and his career, and his legacy---but catchweight fights shouldn't be in play for title fights, he stated.
Cotto told the press that he had to play the catchweight game a few years ago, when he faced off with Manny Pacquiao. That "welterweight" clash in 2009 was set for a 145 pounds or less limit, and no one really squawked and he didn't make waves, he told us.
His current trainer, "Dedham" Freddie Roach, was in Manny's corner that night, the 35-in-October-year-old Puerto Rican icon said.
Shaw told me that there are no "teeth" in the contract, that there is no penalty called for if Geale, the 34-year-old who held the IBF 160 strap in 2011-2013, doesn't make 157. The plan is for Geale to honor what amounts to a gentleman's agreement...though, Shaw said, it was made clear to him that Cotto reserves the right to call off the fight if Geale doesn't make 157. That, I dare say, would not be in the cards, so I guess we will cross that bridge if we come to it, which we hopefully won't.
Roc Nation, which signed Cotto to a mega-million deal, beating out long-time promoter Top Rank for his services, is promoting the Saturday card. HBO will show the main event.
There is a tentative working plan, if all goes according to the Cotto plan, for Miguel to meet up with Mexican hitter Canelo Alvarez in the fall, on a pay-per-view scrum, should Cotto best Geale. So, there were questions to Cotto about Canelo, and also about future potential foe Gennady Golovkin, who holds some other 160 pound crowns, and will be in Brooklyn Saturday, to scope out Cotto. He is pressing hard for the Puerto Rican to step to the line, and accept the challenge. Patience, Cotto has advised; those mega-fights fan crave will occur but on his time frame, he noted. And, it was implied, on his terms. He's the A side, to the A minus sides Canelo and Golovkin...as for Geale, he seems to get everyone is seeing him as a B-guy...but he stared down Cotto hard at the photo face-off at BB Kings, and nothing in his face suggested he didn't think he'd have his hand raised come Saturday night, no matter what he's tasked to weigh in Friday.
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