?I don?t need belts,? said Cotto. ?I have enough belts in my house and with $1.1 million I can buy any belt I want??
After Cotto was stripped of his middleweight title by the WBC just days before his fight with Canelo Alvarez for refusing to pony up the big bucks the sanctioning body demanded, everyone it seems is choosing sides.
Not least among those side-choosers is Golden Boy Promotion?s Oscar De La Hoya.
Fresh off penning an embarrassing open letter to Floyd Mayweather which Playboy agreed to publish, De La Hoya has found another windmill at which to tilt.
Talking with BoxingScene.com, Oscar, who promotes Canelo, was upset at Cotto?s decision, to put it mildly.
?It?s a disgrace,? he said. ?It?s a disgrace to the promotion. It?s a disgrace to the sport to do something like that. Every fighter dreams of fighting for the WBC middleweight championship and to do something like that is a disgrace.?
De La Hoya knows a thing or two about disgrace, so perhaps it really is a disgrace.
But it?s also possible that disgrace is relative.
Having heard or read De La Hoya?s most recent rant, Cotto explained that the WBC wanted a $300,000 sanctioning fee and another $800,000 step-aside money for Gennady Golovkin, who is the mandatory for whoever wins Saturday?s fight.
?Ask Oscar to give $1.1 million to the WBC,? said Cotto, ?and then wait for an answer [from him]. It was $1.1 million. Is that fair? No, it?s not?they want four champions in every division just to earn the 3% of everybody. Then we have to pay for their mistakes. It?s not fair to me.
?Yesterday I talked to Mauricio. He had our answer before camp started. He waited until the last moment to put pressure on us. We call him yesterday. [Instead of] the $800,000 we have to pay Golovkin just to step aside, I had agreed to pay them $125,000 more?that was a reasonable number for me. He said that was not reasonable for them and he said ?No?you are not going to be our champion anymore.?
?I don?t need belts. I have enough belts in my house and with $1.1 million I can buy any belt I want and I can be champion of whatever I want in my house. I don?t need a title. This fight sells by itself and everybody knows what they can expect from Saul and what kind of fight they can expect from Miguel. I kill myself and train my ass off every day with Freddie in LA and I know I have everything to beat Canelo.?
It looks like someone has finally taken a principled stand.
It was long time coming.
