Miguel Cotto's next fight will not be against Gennady Golovkin yet, as the World Boxing Council (WBC) has required one more fight for the Puerto Rican boxer first.
Miguel Cotto's next fight is being slated against Gennady Golovkin, who recently defended his WBA middleweight title, and bagged the WBC interim title. Golovkin himself expressed his interest for the said fight during his post-fight interview.
"I will fight anybody," Golovkin confidently said in a report by ESPN. "I think first Miguel Cotto. I respect Canelo, he is good, but Chavez, too. But first Miguel Cotto."
Miguel Cotto's next fight opponent was initially against elite contender, former light middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Top Rank chief Bob Arum has even claimed that negotiations have already began to make the fight happen in May 2015. But the 82-year old veteran also included Gennady Golovkin into the equation.
"Yeah, that's what we're trying to do," Arum said in an interview with Fight Hub. "Have Cotto and Canelo fight, and Gennady is right there, probably could fight the winner."
The scenario laid out by Arum is the ideal move that Golovkin's camp also foresees.
"This puts Gennady in for a mandatory [fight] with the winner of that [likely] fight," promoter Tom Loeffler said right after Gennady Golovkin knocked out Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
However, the World Boxing Council had released a statement stating that Cotto would need to fight a mandatory title bout with his WBC middleweight title on the line. The 33-year old boxer won the belt after a tenth round stoppage of Sergio Martinez in June.
"World Boxing Council President, Mauricio Sulaiman says that WBC middleweight Champion Miguel Cotto, will have a voluntary defense before facing WBC Interim Champion Gennady Golovkin," an excerpt of the statement reads.
