Cotto reacts to sanctioning bodies and their practices

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Miguel Cotto - Saul Canelo AlvarezBoxing fans across the world are eagerly anticipating the mega fight between Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 Kos) and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 Kos) this Saturday. Yet, what would fight week be without just a little bit of controversy. The WBC stripped Cotto of his title earlier this week for refusing to pay the sanctioning fees.

 

If one were to dig deeper into Cotto’s reasoning for not paying this sanctioning fee, one thing would appear obvious: it wasn’t about the actual sanctioning fee. Cotto obviously has a deeper reasoning for simply relinquishing his WBC belt for a fee that he could easily pay.

 

Cotto’s sanctioning fee to the WBC is priced at $300k, but the amount of money Cotto says he is keeping in his bank account is $1.1 million. That is because Cotto apparently owes his mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG” Golovkin $800K in step aside money for fighting Canelo instead of him.

 

Most assume that Cotto never had a desire to face Golovkin and this is why he did not pay the sanctioning fee. Cotto mentioned that in his time with the media.

 

Cotto while talking to the media yesterday, had some very choice and aggressive words directed at all the sanctioning bodies and the current state of belts in boxing in general. When Cotto asked if it is fair major boxing bodies such as the WBC charge fighters fees to fight for belts, the Puerto Rican star reacted swiftly.

 

“It’s not fair for, first of all, for us the boxers that the organizations create three or four champions in every division just to win a sanction fee for everyone. The boxers are the ones who need to pay the step asides and everything just because of…the greed in the organizations, it has to stop.”

 

First off, Miguel uttered the absolute truth that many hardcore boxing fans have been complaining about for years, which is that there are too many champs per division. Cotto has received heavy criticism over the course of his career, especially in the last couple of years since his move up to “middleweight”, but Cotto is dead on about this.

 

 

Let’s be honest, it’s ridiculous to have more than one champion per division, yet some sanctioning bodies have as many as four. Don’t even get me started on the whole “regular” and “interim” champion debate, as it is not fair to some of the boxers who hold these belts and are not able to fight for the full belt.

 

Cotto to me seems done, not in terms of boxing, but in terms of spirit. I think Cotto is sick of what he perceives as disrespect from members of the media. From people still giving him crap about his first match with Margarito, or telling him he’s a disgrace to the middleweight title by defending it at catch weights, he seems fed up.

 

Forget that Cotto is 5’7 with a 67’ reach fighting as a middleweight, Cotto wasn’t even a big welterweight or junior welterweight for that matter.

 

Cotto has been through many battles throughout his career and should not be forced to face a guy at this point who is undefeated and has been at middleweight since he was an amateur in GGG.

 

Of course, the middleweight title should be defended at the full 160lb capacity. However, you can’t blame the fighters who are looking out for their own best interest, and some of the blame should be directed at the sanctioning bodies for only enforcing rules that they want to enforce when they want to enforce them.

 

For years, sanctioning bodies have made odd moves and yet nothing is done, and life just goes on in the boxing world without any real resolution. Cotto took matters into his own hands and he seems content. After all, he is still making a career payday, fans are getting the best fight in boxing today, and nothing will hinder Golovkin’s ability to claim what should have been his from the beginning- the WBC middleweight championship — unless Canelo does the unthinkable by actually defending against his mandatory in “Triple G.”

 

Of course, there is always a chance the WBC will find a way to create the kind of loophole that would allow Canelo to keep the title without fighting Golovkin a little longer.