April 14, 2015
Three division boxing champion and the current WBC Middleweight Champion of the World, Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs), will finally return to the ring. It will be almost a year to the day when he upsetted then-Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez last June at Madison Square Garden. Though not yet official, it looks like Cotto will make the first defense of his title when he takes on former middleweight titleholder Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) of Australia on June 6 and an official announcement of the fight is expected on Wednesday in New York City.
However, instead of being held at Madison Square Garden where the Puerto Rican star has fought some of his biggest and most memorable fights of his career, Cotto will be making his first appearance at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The fight will be held in Brooklyn after Cotto announced a new joint venture with Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, who will align with Cotto’s promotional company called Cotto Promotions.
Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports got into the boxing business in August of last year and have been aggressively pursuing fighters and have so far signed two big names to their company, one of them is Cotto who signed a multi-year and multi-million dollar deal with Roc Nation in early March.
While die-hard boxing fans are not overly thrilled that Daniel Geale is Miguel Cotto’s next opponent, Geale does bring in a lot of experience. He’s the naturally bigger man, and has been in there with some of the best middleweights in the world, but was absolutely destroyed in his last appearance on American soil when he was knocked out in less than three rounds to the man most feel Cotto should be fighting in Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin.
However, Geale will be an interesting test for Miguel, who will be out of the ring almost a year to the day when he faces Geale who is hungry and wants to redeem himself after his poor showing against Golovkin.
Cotto is still considered one of the true elite fighters in boxing and widely respected by fans and people in the industry because of aggressive fighting style, his TV fan friendly fights, and the willingness to fight the best sharing the same ring over the years with the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, and Sergio Martinez.
Hopefully if Cotto emerges victorious on June 6, fans will see him lace up with the likes of Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin later this year.
