Miguel Cotto is set to defend his World Boxing Council middleweight title for the first time against a soon-to-be-named opponent on December 13 at the Madison Square Garden in New York.
And if Cotto successfully defends his title, trainer Freddie Roach wants the Puerto Rican to face former light middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in his first fight in 2015.
Alvarez, who is coming off a split decision win against Erislandy Lara in July, will also return to the ring in November or December, and is also eyeing a showdown with Cotto, whom he challenged earlier this year, but the Caguas, Puerto Rico native turned down the offer.
Cotto, who won the WBC middleweight title against Sergio Martinez in June, is also being linked to Gennady Golovkin, but Roach pointed out that they will only be interested in facing GGG after a fight against Canelo.
"I want the Canelo Alvarez fight to happen. If that happens, we'll talk about Golovkin after that," Roach said in a BoxingScene interview.
The Hall of Fame trainer also laughed off accusation saying that Cotto is afraid of Golovkin, who holds an impressive 30-0 record with 27 knockouts, saying that the 32-year-old is a good puncher, but a very hittable foe.
"We have no fear of him," Roach said of Golovkin. "He's hittable, he can punch a little bit. He's hittable and he doesn't have a great defense. He's a nice guy, a good fighter, real friendly guy and real polite. I met him a few times, he's a really nice gentleman. But boxing wise he's hittable and anyone who's like that I feel Miguel can hurt."
Roach also pointed out that while Golovkin holds the IBF and WBA middleweight titles, he sees no reason to pick Golovkin over Alvarez because GGG has yet to prove that he can generate high pay-per-view buys.
"The thing is, they haven't marketed that kid well. Nobody knows who he is. On pay-per-view he can't do ten cents. Why fight a guy like that for no money? Unless he's bringing money to the table we're not going to fight him," Roach said of Golovkin, who is scheduled to defend his title against Marco Antonio Rubio on October 18 in California.
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