by David P. Greisman

Although people may want Miguel Cotto to legitimize his middleweight championship by defending it against Gennady Golovkin, Golovkin’s trainer doesn’t expect that to happen.

“I think that Miguel’s got other plans,” Sanchez said. “I think that Miguel realizes that Golovkin is just too much for him and is going in a different direction, which is fine for us. We just want to fight for the middleweight title. It doesn’t matter who it’s against.”

Cotto is the lineal champion based on his big win last year over Sergio Martinez, who had outpointed Kelly Pavlik, who had knocked out Jermain Taylor, who had dethroned Bernard Hopkins. Golovkin has world titles and is seen by many as the best at 160. Still, it doesn’t frustrate Sanchez that Cotto won’t face Golovkin. Rather, it’s a situation out of their control.

“We can’t kidnap him and force him to get in the ring,” Sanchez said. “He in his mind knows, and Freddie [Roach, Cotto’s trainer] knows that Golovkin is too much for him and will stop him in less than five rounds. They’re not going to take a chance on that. Cotto’s had a great career. There’s no reason, unless he really wants to prove that he’s a middleweight. There’s no reason to get in the ring with Golovkin. Golovkin will destroy him.”

That leaves a few other options at middleweight. Golovkin’s next defense will be a May 16 bout in Los Angeles against prospect Willie Monroe Jr., who is 19-1 with 6 KOs. There are other titleholders out there: Andy Lee will defend his WBO belt against Peter Quillin on April 11. Hassan N’Dam will face David Lemieux for the vacant IBF title in the spring.

“Gennady wants to make sure who is who at 160 pounds. He wants to unify the titles if they’re willing to fight him,” Sanchez said. “If they’re not willing to fight him, we’ll find out by the end of this year, and maybe next year he’ll move up to 168. But first things first, 160 pounds is what he wants.”

Golovkin is coming off an 11th-round technical knockout of Martin Murray, his 19th straight win by KO or TKO, moving his record to 32-0 with 29 KOs. It was the deepest into a bout that Golovkin had ever gone.

“It’s not what he showed me. It’s what he showed the fans who don’t think he can box and don’t think that he has defense,” Sanchez said. “We see that in the gym every day. It’s just unfortunate for us that fights are ending early. Murray proved to be a worthy challenger and allowed Gennady to work on some of the things that we need to practice for the future.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com