09.04.08 – By Cesar Pancorvo: The rumors of Trinidad-Taylor continue, Don King has met Trinidad and it is more than a possibility. King said that, after that fight, Trinidad could continue his career and challenge the Calzaghe-Hopkins winner.
Taylor-Trinidad could happen in the last week of September, but why is Trinidad doing that, fighting someone that will most probably defeat him? I can only think of two reasons: his love for boxing (the election of tough opponents reaffirm his bravery) and his love for money (he will be the most marketable fighter in 99% of his future fights, but there is a reason of why he is choosing opponents who are “names”).
Fighting Taylor at 168 or 170 is logical right now, at this stage of his career, but this has become very common: older versions of great fighters that refuse to retire and prefer to stay and only agree to fight in big fights. That interferes with the natural course of boxing because the young boxers have a harder time rising to the top and getting inside the ring with the elite fighters, who prefer to face the veteran/marketable figures. Oscar de la Hoya is the archetype of an older and marketable boxer that stops other big fights from happening –Trinidad could become one.
-Miguel Cotto was not very positive in his last comments about Floyd Mayweather and said: “That’s the thing he has done his whole career, you know? He runs from the really good boxers”. It should not surprise us that Cotto undervalues Mayweather like that, after all we have to remember that Mayweather is depriving Cotto from two important things like: one, from the colossal chance of becoming a top P4P contender if he beats Mayweather and, two, from the tremendous dividends he would receive if a fight between both of them happens.
I think that the Mayweather-Cotto bout will happen in mid or late 2009; Mayweather, in a video I watched last week, talked about fighting Cotto, but only if he increases his fan base and marketability. Cotto already has a big fan base, no one should dispute that, but I assume that Mayweather and Arum are going to wait and see if Cotto can increase it and then make the Mayweather-Cotto bout.
Notice especially that Cotto says that Mayweather has run from really good boxers his whole career. And if that is true, Miguel, then what are Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Jesus Chavez, Zab Judah and Ricky Hatton? Did Mayweather run from really good boxers when he fought, twice, Jose Luis Castillo and when he fought Oscar de la Hoya, and agreed to fight him again? As a fan of boxing, of course I want Mayweather-Cotto to happen ipso facto and I dislike the idea of Mayweather rematching De la Hoya, but I can’t agree with an imprudent remark like the one made by Cotto.