By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Promoter Lou DiBella met with HBO brass Thursday to discuss the future of middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who is coming off that massive second-round knockout of Paul Williams in their rematch two weeks ago. While the plan is for Martinez to return in March or April, his opponent remains up in the air.
There are several possibilities, but DiBella is hoping to entice junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto into what would be a high-profile fight. To that end, DiBella and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had some discussion about the fight this week.
"We had an honest-to-goodness conversation about the fight," DiBella said. "Bob knows we can easily make the fight. He will be meeting with Cotto's people this week and presenting them with various options. Cotto has already proven his mettle time and again, but to do a fight like this, he will get nothing but props from people."
The chances of Martinez-Cotto probably improved this week when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. dropped out of Saturday's fight with Pawel Wolak. Had Chavez fought and won, there was a good chance that he would have faced Cotto next in April, Arum said.
But Chavez won't go into a big fight against Cotto without at least one more fight under his belt. Trainer Freddie Roach has made that clear, and Arum agreed. That means Chavez won't be Cotto's next opponent.
Martinez is willing to drop down to 155 pounds and put his middleweight championship at stake against Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs), who won a junior middleweight belt in June by stopping Yuri Foreman in the ninth round at Yankee Stadium -- one fight after Manny Pacquiao knocked Cotto out in the 12th round to take his welterweight belt.
"Cotto is an elite fighter, and this is a very good fight for boxing," said Martinez, who is already back in the gym doing some light training after the win over Williams. "It's a big Latino fight. I will fight him at 155. I would love to fight Cotto. I have a lot of respect for him."
Said DiBella: "Cotto wouldn't be risking his 154-pound belt and would be getting a shot at the middleweight title. If Cotto loses, he goes back and defends his title in other big fights, like against Antonio Margarito [in a rematch] or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. If Cotto beats Martinez, it's a huge accomplishment. If he didn't win, he's still 154-[pound] champion and the Chavez and Margarito bouts are still there for him. It's like the Martinez fight is a free pass. Like he gets two bites at the apple."
DiBella said he and Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs) respect Cotto as "a true warrior, so if Martinez has to struggle a little bit to make 155, so be it. It might be a little bit uncomfortable, but he's not that far removed from fighting at junior middleweight. You know it would be a big fight."
Arum said he isn't going to rush into a deal until he sits down with Cotto and his team.
"I told Lou that Cotto is coming this weekend [to Top Rank's pay-per-view card on Saturday in Anaheim, Calif.] and I'm going to talk to him about his future plans," Arum said. "We'll talk about fights, including Martinez, and if that's a fight they want to pursue, I will pursue it."
Arum said he's more interested in matching Cotto with Margarito in a rematch of their 2008 slugfest, which Margarito won on an 11th-round TKO, although the victory is clouded by suspicions that he fought with loaded hand wraps, as he was caught trying to do in his next fight against Shane Mosley.
"I think the Martinez fight would interest us, but I think Miguel can make more money fighting the rematch with Margarito," Arum said. "My opinion is he should wait for Margarito because that's such a big fight and it will be as big as the first fight, and maybe bigger."
Cotto, however, has said repeatedly that he didn't want to fight Margarito again because he believed he cheated in their first fight. Also, a rematch with Margarito likely wouldn't take place until at least June, while Margarito recovers from the beating Pacquiao laid on him Nov. 13, and Cotto has said he is interested in fighting in the spring.
So if Cotto fights in the spring, and there's no Margarito rematch and no Chavez fight, that would seem to leave Martinez as his biggest viable option.
ESPN.com
Promoter Lou DiBella met with HBO brass Thursday to discuss the future of middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who is coming off that massive second-round knockout of Paul Williams in their rematch two weeks ago. While the plan is for Martinez to return in March or April, his opponent remains up in the air.
There are several possibilities, but DiBella is hoping to entice junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto into what would be a high-profile fight. To that end, DiBella and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had some discussion about the fight this week.
"We had an honest-to-goodness conversation about the fight," DiBella said. "Bob knows we can easily make the fight. He will be meeting with Cotto's people this week and presenting them with various options. Cotto has already proven his mettle time and again, but to do a fight like this, he will get nothing but props from people."
The chances of Martinez-Cotto probably improved this week when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. dropped out of Saturday's fight with Pawel Wolak. Had Chavez fought and won, there was a good chance that he would have faced Cotto next in April, Arum said.
But Chavez won't go into a big fight against Cotto without at least one more fight under his belt. Trainer Freddie Roach has made that clear, and Arum agreed. That means Chavez won't be Cotto's next opponent.
Martinez is willing to drop down to 155 pounds and put his middleweight championship at stake against Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs), who won a junior middleweight belt in June by stopping Yuri Foreman in the ninth round at Yankee Stadium -- one fight after Manny Pacquiao knocked Cotto out in the 12th round to take his welterweight belt.
"Cotto is an elite fighter, and this is a very good fight for boxing," said Martinez, who is already back in the gym doing some light training after the win over Williams. "It's a big Latino fight. I will fight him at 155. I would love to fight Cotto. I have a lot of respect for him."
Said DiBella: "Cotto wouldn't be risking his 154-pound belt and would be getting a shot at the middleweight title. If Cotto loses, he goes back and defends his title in other big fights, like against Antonio Margarito [in a rematch] or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. If Cotto beats Martinez, it's a huge accomplishment. If he didn't win, he's still 154-[pound] champion and the Chavez and Margarito bouts are still there for him. It's like the Martinez fight is a free pass. Like he gets two bites at the apple."
DiBella said he and Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs) respect Cotto as "a true warrior, so if Martinez has to struggle a little bit to make 155, so be it. It might be a little bit uncomfortable, but he's not that far removed from fighting at junior middleweight. You know it would be a big fight."
Arum said he isn't going to rush into a deal until he sits down with Cotto and his team.
"I told Lou that Cotto is coming this weekend [to Top Rank's pay-per-view card on Saturday in Anaheim, Calif.] and I'm going to talk to him about his future plans," Arum said. "We'll talk about fights, including Martinez, and if that's a fight they want to pursue, I will pursue it."
Arum said he's more interested in matching Cotto with Margarito in a rematch of their 2008 slugfest, which Margarito won on an 11th-round TKO, although the victory is clouded by suspicions that he fought with loaded hand wraps, as he was caught trying to do in his next fight against Shane Mosley.
"I think the Martinez fight would interest us, but I think Miguel can make more money fighting the rematch with Margarito," Arum said. "My opinion is he should wait for Margarito because that's such a big fight and it will be as big as the first fight, and maybe bigger."
Cotto, however, has said repeatedly that he didn't want to fight Margarito again because he believed he cheated in their first fight. Also, a rematch with Margarito likely wouldn't take place until at least June, while Margarito recovers from the beating Pacquiao laid on him Nov. 13, and Cotto has said he is interested in fighting in the spring.
So if Cotto fights in the spring, and there's no Margarito rematch and no Chavez fight, that would seem to leave Martinez as his biggest viable option.
You don't read well do you. This is Sergio and DiBella's call, THEY are calling out Cotto, Cotto didn't ask for a catchweight or a shot at the middleweight crown or a fight with Martinez. They went looking for Cotto since neither Pac nor Floyd want a part of him. You know - the same way Mosley told Roach and Pacquiao he'd drop down to 140 to fight and they wanted no part of him right after he demolished Margarito. But 2 bad fights later and suddenly team Pacman think it would be a great match.
