De La Hoya: Cotto deserves to go out on top on HBO

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions boss Oscar De La Hoys is fully behind Miguel Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) finishing his career with a fight against welterweight Sadam Ali (25-1, 14 KOs) on December 2 on HBO at Madison Square Garden, in New York.

This is going to be the last fight of Cotto’s long boxing career, as he’s supposed to be retiring after the fight. The 36-year-old Cotto will be in demand after he steps away from the sport. Saul Canelo Alvarez is just one of many fighters that want to fight Cotto. There’s big money in a second fight between them. Canelo beat Cotto by a close 12 round decision in 2015. The fight made massive amounts of money for both fighters. It’s going to be hard for Cotto to resist a rematch with Canelo if it’s offered him in the future.

While it’s not the ideal opponent for Cotto to bow out with, De La Hoya says he’s earned the right to go out on top of the sport on HBO in what will be a packed house at Madison Square Garcia.
“Miguel Cotto has had an amazing career, a stellar career. Miguel Cotto deserves the chance of a lifetime of trying to go out on top on HBO at the Garden,” said De La Hoya.

De La Hoya tried to get talented fighters to agree to take the fight with Cotto, but they wouldn’t agree to it. The reasons the fighters gave was De La Hoya was trying to get options on them for future fights. Some of the fighters that rejected the December 2 Cotto fight are as follows:

• Errol Spence Jr.

• Danny Garcia

• Mikey Garcia

“I’ve been fighting since i was 8 years old. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. Like (promoter) Oscar (De La Hoya) said, I dare to be great,” said Cotto. “I enjoyed my whole career, every moment made me the boxer I am right now. My whole career has been amazing for me.”

There’s not much risk involved in Cotto going out on a fight against welterweight Sadam Ali. Let’s be honest about this. Ali, 29, is just 4 fights removed from a 9th round knockout loss to Jessie Vargas last year on March. Ali isn’t viewed as one of the better welterweights in the division. He’s more of a fringe guy, but he’s with Golden Boy Promotions. That put him in the position to get the fight with Cotto. Ali has a 3-fight winning streak in beating Jorge Silva, Saul Corral and John Perez. Those are nice B and C-level fighters.

“If you love boxing, you’re going to grow up watching Miguel Cotto. Yes, I did watch him growing up,” said Ali.