Photo by Brant Wilson/RBRBoxing
Miguel Cotto Blasts WBC and Oscar De La Hoya
After being stripped of his WBC Middleweight title on Tuesday, Miguel Cotto had a few words for the World Boxing Council and for the promoter of his opponent this Saturday, Oscar De La Hoya.
Cotto, 35, is set to face Canelo Alvarez this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas and live on HBO Pay-Per-View, but the title he earned by defeating Sergio Martinez won’t be on the line due to failing to pay the $300,000 sanctioning fee.
Alvarez, 25, who was willing to abide by WBC rules, is still eligible to win the title on Saturday if he is successful.
In a recent BoxingScene.com article, Cotto explained the situation.
“Ask Oscar to give $1.1 million dollars to the WBC and then wait for an answer [from him],” said Cotto.
“It was $1.1 million dollars. Is that fair? No, it’s not. The organization just create…they want four champions in every division just to earn the 3 percent of everybody. Then we have to pay for their mistakes. It’s not fair to me,” said Cotto, who was referring to the step-aside agreement made with Gennady Golovkin–which was $800,000 dollars–and the separate $300,000 sanctioning fee.
The math is correct, but the step-aside agreement was done to avoid fighting the No. 1 contender and interim titleholder, Gennady Golovkin. Step-aside agreements, like the one done by Danny Garcia last year with Viktor Postol before Garcia faced Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson, are done frequently to make way for important fights or to avoid certain fighters.
Cotto offered to pay $125,000 dollars along with the $800,000 dollars for the step-aside fee, but the WBC said that would not be enough and officially stripped Cotto of the title.
“I don’t need belts. I have enough belts in my house, and with $1.1 million dollars I can buy any belt I want and I can be the champion of whatever I want in my house,” said the Puerto Rican superstar.
“I don’t need a title. This fight sells by itself and everybody knows what they can expect from Saul and what kind of fight they can expect from Miguel. I kill myself and train my ass off every day with Freddie in LA and I know that I have everything to beat Canelo,” Cotto concluded.
You can read the full BoxingScene.com report here.
What do you think about Cotto’s decision? Was the WBC sanctioning fee appropriate? Or was Cotto trying to get away with too many
