Miguel Cotto Redeems Himself by Signing to Fight a Top Tier Middleweight

By Travis Fleming

Time to give credit to the future Hall of Famer, and Puerto Rican legend, Miguel Cotto, 39-4 32 KO’s. With speculation that Cotto was going to play it safe in an easy comeback fight, he has remained true to his character and has done the right thing by signing to fight a legit top tier middleweight in the first defense of his WBC, and lineal, middleweight championship. On June 6th, live on HBO from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Cotto will be defending his title against former unified IBF and WBA middleweight champion Daniel Gaele, 31-3 16 KO’s, from Australia. This is a big relief, and Cotto deserves a lot of credit for this fight as Gaele is a legit, top level, middleweight. The boxing world was getting very impatient with Cotto, who hasn’t fought for a year after stopping long time middleweight kingpin Sergio Martinez in a shocking upset.

By signing to fight Gaele, Cotto is showing that he wants to hold on to his middleweight championship and, in turn, showing a willingness to face Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, 32-0 29 KO’s, in a super fight later this year. I was overly critical of Cotto in recent articles for rumored potential opponents that were being considered. Cotto has always fought the best so it was disappointing to hear some of the names being considered for his return. From old junior middleweight Cornelius Bundrage, to unknown Argentinian middleweight Sebastian Heiland, to a couple of of welterweights in Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios, news of him signing to fight Gaele is a big relief for fans, and GGG. None of those fighters were worthy defenses for a middleweight champion, but Gaele certainly is. Gaele will be a stern test for Cotto, and the winner must give GGG his long deserved title shot next, or vacate the title and let GGG fight their next highest rated fighter for the vacant championship. Cotto has, once again, showed his warrior spirit by not taking an easy out and vacating.

Daniel Gaele is a very good, legit middleweight. He is a skilled boxer with an excellent pedigree and a quality resume. He has often traveled to other countries to get opportunities in high risk bouts against local fighters, so he wont be effected by fighting Cotto in New York, in front of Cotto’s rabid Puerto Rican fan base. He is a recent champion, and he will be very hungry for redemption in this big money fight against the superstar Cotto. Gaele holds the distinction of being one of the very few men to hold two major middleweight titles at the same time, and he did it the hard way. He won his IBF title by beating, then champion, Sebastian Sylvester in front of his hometown fans in Germany. He has beaten some very good middleweights over the years, but most impressive was his unification fight against long reigning, three time middleweight champion, Felix Sturm. Sturm held the WBA middleweight title and had benefited from fighting at home in Germany many times in the past, receiving preferential treatment from hometown judges in bouts he deserved to lose. Beating Sturm in Germany has proven, over the years, to be a near impossible task, yet Gaele did just that and therefore proved he was an elite level fighter with two major world championships. Gaele recently got KO’d by Gennady Golovkin, but bounced back with a win against Jarrod Fletcher. In Gaele, Cotto will be facing the best fighter GGG has ever gotten in the professional ring with, so it’s more than acceptable as a first title defense with the promise of a GGG fight later this year for the winner.

Gennady Golovkin is the peoples champion at 160 lbs. He is considered to be by far the best middleweight in the world, and has a realistic chance of beating Bernard Hopkins’ record setting title defense streak. He’s the most devastating fighter in the sport today so he has been avoided by the division’s top fighters and lineal champion’s. Although most consider him to be the man at 160 lbs, he has never gotten the chance to fight for the Iineal championship, despite chasing the opportunity for several years, and destroying every man put in front of him. Sick of being avoided by the lineal champions, and in order to position himself as the mandatory challenger for the WBC title, Golovkin faced, and knocked out, WBC interim champ Marco Antonio Rubio last year. With the interim title, he was guaranteed a shot at the WBC champion. After upsetting Sergio Martinez with a spectacular stoppage, Cotto was granted a voluntary defense, and took over a year to give us one, and if he chose any of the other fighters considered for his first defense, aside from the unheralded Heiland, he would have been stripped of his title. By fighting Gaele, he gets to keep his title if he wins with a guarantee of fighting GGG next or vacating. The WBC have ordered that whoever emerges from this fight with the WBC title, they must fight GGG next, or be stripped of the title to allow GGG to fight their next highest rated fighter for their middleweight belt later this year. If he beats Gaele, Cotto will have to face GGG next, if he wants to keep his belt, but there’s always a chance Cotto could, win or lose to Gaele, vacate the title for a more lucrative money fight against a less dangerous opponent in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 44-1-1 31 KO’s. Either way it’s great news because the best middleweight in the world in Gennady Golovkin will finally get the chance to call himself the lineal, and ring, champion of the world as the king of 160 lbs.

Cotto’s decision to face Gaele was wise. If he wins he has the option of GGG, or vacating to face Canelo. Negotiations for a Canelo fight earlier this year proved difficult, so if he beats Gaele he leaves the door open for a big fight vs Golovkin. If he loses to Gaele, he can still get a big money fight against Canelo in a bout that would be the highest grossing fight in the sport not featuring Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao. Another reason Gaele is a good pick is that, although he is a very talented fighter, he’s not exactly a killer and lost in a third round TKO to GGG. Team Cotto can use Gaele as a gauge to see whether they want to face GGG or vacate the title. Cotto’s very small for a middleweight, he might have caught an injured and aging Sergio Martinez at the perfect time to win his title. In Gaele they will be facing a younger, hungry, true middleweight in perfect health, so this fight will really show if Cotto has what it takes to compete against the much bigger men at middleweight, and if he can’t there’s no harm done and it’s back down to junior middleweight with the legitimate excuse of losing because he was too small. If Cotto beats Gaele convincingly or knocks him out, then he will be by far the best opponent of GGG’s career and a legit champion. It’s win-win for both Cotto and GGG, regardless of the outcome, because GGG will get his title shot and Cotto will get another big money fight.
Cotto’s all time great trainer, Freddie Roach, is very good at selecting opponents he thinks his fighters can beat. He must see something in Gaele that he feels Cotto can exploit. By announcing possible opponents like Heiland, Rios, and Bundrage, team Cotto might have been using the old trick of mentioning a bunch of possible weak opponents in order to gain fan acceptance for choosing someone that’s not exactly dangerous. Either way they deserve respect for selecting the proven Daniel Gaele because although he’s not a big puncher, his size and pedigree should prove a difficult challenge for Cotto.

Cotto made big news earlier in the year by announcing he has signed with Jay Z’s upstart Roc Nation boxing promotions for the final bouts of his hall of fame career. It looks like they’re delivering with Gaele, then a monstrous bout against Canelo or GGG later this year. Not bad for a novice promoter. I look forward to seeing if Cotto can hang at middleweight. This is excellent news for boxing because in the same year it returned to network tv and the biggest fight in history was made, we now have another super fight at the end of 2015 to look forward to.