Former four-division world champion Miguel Cotto will be coming out of retirement to take on Juan Manuel Marquez in an exhibition fight on June 12th on pay-per-view.
The information on the location and cost of the Cotto vs. Marquez PPV bout has yet to be revealed.
El Nuevo Dia is reporting that the 40-year-old Cotto (41-6, 33 KOs) will be returning to the ring to take on the 47-year-old former four-division world champion ‘Dinamita’ Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) in a fight that is expected to be officially announced on April 5th.
Miguel Cotto last fought in December 2017, losing his WBO junior middleweight title to Sadam Ali by a 12 round unanimous decision in an upset defeat. Cotto fought with an injured shoulder, which enabled Ali to outwork him to win the fight. Afterward, Cotto retired.
In his prime, Cotto had wins over these excellent fighters:
- Antonio Margarito
- Sergio Martinez
- Ricardo Mayorga
- Shane Mosley
- Zab Judah
Unfortunately, Cotto was arguably more known for his losses to Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez, Margarito, Austin Trout, and Floyd Mayweather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkMwAXRWIQ8
Since retiring, Cotto has filled his time as a promoter for boxing events. Cotto retired young, and there had already been speculation about whether Cotto would return to the ring given the uneven quality and the lack of stars at 147 and 154.
For his part, Marquez has been out of the ring since his 12 round unanimous decision victory over Mike Alvarado in April 2014. Although Marquez won the fight, he was decked in the ninth round by Alvarado, who wasn’t one of the major players at 147 at that point in his career.
Cotto and Marquez are just two of the many older retired fighters that are making a comeback to take advantage of the huge interest boxing fans have in seeing these greats.
Last week, 48-year-old Oscar De La Hoya announced that he’ll be fighting an exhibition on July 3rd in a Triller card on pay-per-view.
Former world champions Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr fought in an eight-round exhibition match last November. That fight, which was promoted by Triller, generated $80 million.
It’s unknown how much money Tyson and Jones walked away with. With that kind of money being generated between these two 50+-year-old stars, it’s not surprising that Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez have decided to get into the act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih80WFTCTsU
With it being an exhibition match, it’s unclear whether this will be a slow-motion affair like we saw with Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr or the demolition job that Floyd Mayweather Jr did in 2018 against a badly overmatched Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasugawa.
Boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez will be taking on Hector Camacho Jr in an exhibition on June 19th. Chavez is 58.