By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – It doesn’t seem as though Miguel Cotto is seriously considering squaring off against Gennady Golovkin in a middleweight championship unification fight Dec. 13 at Madison Square Garden.

If the four-division champion changes his mind before Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) commits to another fight, however, the knockout artist from Kazakhstan would sign his contract even faster than he landed that counter right hand that annihilated Daniel Geale on Saturday night at the Garden. Cotto-Golovkin is the fight Golovkin’s handlers want above all others, yet they understand the 33-year-old Cotto controls the situation and they simply must wait until the Puerto Rican icon determines his next move.

“My understanding is they don’t have an opponent for Cotto yet,” said Tom Loeffler, managing director for K2 Promotions, Golovkin’s representative. “If there’s something to be made there, we’ll explore it. If not, we can’t force someone to get in the ring with [Golovkin].”

Regardless, Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) is expected to headline a Garden card in 4½ months for the 10th time since June 2005. His dominant upset defeat of former WBC middleweight champ Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KOs) drew a capacity crowd of 21,090 to the Garden on June 7.

The card carried by the 32-year-old Golovkin’s third-round knockout of Australia’s Geale (30-3, 16 KOs) drew a respectable announced crowd of 8,572 on Saturday. Golovkin’s 17th straight knockout marked his first main event in the Garden’s main arena.

A Cotto-Golovkin clash for the WBA and WBC middleweight championships would sell out very quickly.

“Everyone on the Golovkin side has a ton of respect for Miguel and what he’s accomplished,” Loeffler said. “Coming back and beating Sergio Martinez, who was supposed to be the best middleweight, the way Miguel dominated a true warrior like that, that proves Miguel’s heart and his ability to rise to the occasion and his marketability. Selling out Madison Square Garden like that is a testament. If you add that to what Gennady did [Saturday night], that’s an electric event at the Garden.”

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.