Miguel Cotto Likely To Face Jorge Sebastian Heiland – Earth to the WBC… Come on Give Cotto Someone That Earned a Title Shot!

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By Travis Fleming

It has been reported that Miguel Cotto is close to signing for a June clash with Argentinean middleweight Jorge Sebastian Heiland. Heiland is coming off of a tenth round knockout of former championship challenger Matthew Macklin, which got him ranked just within the top ten at middleweight. Other than Macklin, Heiland has primarily fought unknown fighters in Argentina while amassing a record of 25 wins with 13 knockouts against 4 losses.

With a plethora of better fighters available, including a highly demanded fight against Gennady Golovkin, Heiland is a pretty weak defense for the lineal middleweight champion. Still, it’s better than a fight with an old junior middleweight like the one that was rumored against Cornelius “K9” Bundrage. At least Heiland is a true middleweight in his prime and his range, and southpaw stance, could provide problems for the smaller Cotto. An upset wouldn’t be shocking as Cotto is not a true middleweight and has never faced one who is healthy. Heiland was chosen primarily to keep Cotto’s championship and because it is an easy fight to make as both Cotto and Heiland share the same advisor in Gaby Penagaricano.

By fighting a top ten middleweight, Cotto is able to retain his championship while continuing to avoid the people’s champion GGG. HBO doesn’t feel like this fight is of a high enough caliber to air as headliner and, as a result, they have demanded that in order for them to air this bout, Cotto must sign a preliminary agreement to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez later this year if both men win their next fights.

Alvarez vs Cotto is the biggest fight in the sport besides Pacquiao vs Mayweather, so to have both super bouts in the same year, along with boxing’s return to free TV, would be huge for the sport’s popularity. Despite this, it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you realize that GGG is going to be frozen out of the chance to become lineal champion for at least another year, while Canelo might get to waltz into the division and fight for the championship in his first fight at 160 lbs. At least Canelo has shown a lot more willingness to face Golovkin than Cotto has shown, so with him dethroning Cotto, GGG’s dream of becomimg the lineal champion becomes more of a reality. It could happen even sooner than this as the WBC has ordered Cotto to face GGG after his next bout. If Cotto goes the Canelo route instead, he might be forced to vacate and allow GGG to fight someone else for the vacant title. Somehow though, I feel the WBC will see more value in Canelo being crowned king at 160 lbs and they’ll find a way to make an exception to their ordered bout between GGG and Cotto to let Canelo have the chance to take Cotto’s championship first, if Cotto gets by Heiland.