Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank
On November 17, 2015 the World Boxing Council announced that it will no longer recognize Miguel Cotto as the Middleweight champion.
The announcement comes as a surprise as Cotto is merely a few days away from his second attempted defense–a lucrative fight against 25-year-old Mexican superstar, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered”]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 did not agree to comply with the WBC Rules & Regulations, while Saúl Alvarez has agreed to do so. Accordingly, the WBC must rule on the matter prior to the fight. The WBC hereby announces that effective immediately has withdrawn recognition of Miguel Cotto as WBC World Middleweight Champion. If Saul “Canelo” Alvarez wins the fight against Cotto, he will be recognized as the WBC middleweight world champion. The WBC’s decision is premised on the fact that Miguel Cotto and his camp are not willing to abide by the governing WBC Rules & Regulations, and the specific conditions the WBC established to sanction the fight. Simply put: they are not willing to respect the very same rules and conditions which applied to Cotto becoming WBC champion. The WBC wishes Miguel Cotto the best of luck as we truly regret the course of action which led to them taking such decision.[/otw_shortcode_quote]
The WBC did not specify what those conditons were, but did state that Alvarez was willing to comply and that if he is successful against the 35-year-old Puerto Rican this Saturday, he will be recognized as the Middleweight champion.
Cotto is still the Lineal Middleweight champion and will continuing being so if successful on Saturday.
Update:
According to an article by ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, sources involved in the fight say that the WBC’s decision was caused by Cotto’s refusal to pay the 300,000 sanctioning fee.
Rafael also mentioned that the WBC also required 25,000 from each of the promoters involved, Roc Nation Sports and Golden Boy Promotions, in addition to the sanctioning fee that would have put Cotto’s title on the line.
Gennady Golovkin, the interim WBC champion and is in line to face the winner of Cotto-Canelo, was also paid a step-aside fee that Cotto was in part responsible for paying. The step-aside was an agreement between the two fighters in order to make Cotto-Canelo.
“According to a source with knowledge of that agreement, Golovkin was paid $800,000, and after having already paid a portion of the step-aside fee, Cotto felt that having to pay another $300,000 to have the WBC sanction the fight was too much,” said Rafael.
What do you think about the WBC’s decision? Was Cotto required to pay too much?
