Cotto-Canelo: Do fans care about WBC title?

Puerto Rican middleweight great Miguel Cotto says he does not need a world title to lend importance to tonight’s showdown with Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

At 35, Cotto is the grizzled old pro and the 25-year-old Alvarez, the young gun.

The sting from Mayweather-Pacquiao is still there, which makes anyone who spent $100 to watch that overhyped snoozer think twice about wasting their money on boxing again.

Roach also notes that Cotto will only rehydrate to around 160 pounds, whereas he expects Canelo to tip the fight-day scales at approximately 175.

It was supposed to be for a piece of the middleweight title, but now only Alvarez can leave the ring as a champion if he wins.

“I don’t need a belt to fight Canelo”, said Cotto, who was stripped of his WBC crown on Tuesday over failure to pay the US$300,000 sanctioning fee they demanded for a world title bout.

“I have enough belts in my house”.

“I also I believe that now I have two belts, there is no reason why the WBA shouldn’t make me “super” champion so that I can fight in a unification soon and then fight at 160″.

It’s probably just as well, because the fight was barely a middleweight bout anyway. And to be completely transparent, if Mayweather’s fights were included in the chart beyond just the times he fought Canelo, Pacquiao, and Cotto, all of those fights (sans the Berto fight) would be at the top of the range.

Ken Goldfield/Ken Goldfield Miguel Cotto (l.) dropped Daniel Geale in four at Barclays Center in Brooklyn in June, 2015.

The event takes place on pay-per-view from Mandaly Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. “We are going to apply our plan the best way possible”. Alvarez is already a consistent pay-per-view draw, with his only loss coming in a fight with Mayweather that he proved too inexperienced to win.

Though he fell to American Austin Trout via a 12-round decision after losing to Mayweather, Cotto’s also responded with three straight victories with two TKO’s and the retirement of Argentina’s Sergio Martinez in the 10 th round.

After several weeks of communications, countless attempts and good faith time extensions trying to preserve the fight as a WBC world championship, Miguel Cotto and his promotion (Roc Nation Sports) did not agree to comply with the WBC rules and regulations, while Saul Alvarez has agreed to do so. Additionally, fans can catch footage of past fights featuring both Cotto and Canelo.

However, Roach said he would love to see Cotto knock out Alvarez – then call out Floyd Mayweather Jr to put his 49-0 record on the line in a rematch. “He was looking for knockouts, I had to remind him he is a boxer, first”.

In the wake of Mayweather-Pacquiao this one is a tough sell.