The verbal spat outside the ring is providing sparks before Saturday?s real fight between boxers Miguel Cotto and ?Canelo? Alvarez.
Oscar De La Hoya, the hall of fame former champion who promotes Alvarez, told reporters that Cotto?s refusal to pay the full WBC sanctioning fee of $300,000 for the middleweight championship in Las Vegas ?a disgrace.?
Cotto responded, saying ?He should take care of his own business. And I will take care of mine. I don?t stick my nose in Oscar?s business.? The WBC stripped Cotto of his title belt Tuesday, four days in advance of the pay-per-view bout.
De La Hoya, in a phone interview Wednesday with the Union-Tribune, said he?s paid every sanctioning fee in his career and has not negotiated a lower fee as a fighter.
?This is our business,? De La Hoya said. ?This is being responsible to the sport, so it does make it my business. ? I always complied with the rules and regulations. I always understood the responsibility of fighting for the title and the honor it is to become the WBC world champion.?
Cotto told reporters that the WBC expected him to pay $1.1 million – $300,000 for the sanctioning fee and an $800,000 step-aside payment to Gennady Golovkin. He said he offered to pay a $125,000 fee, so $925,000 in all.
?I don?t need their belt,? Cotto said, leading into the bout at Mandalay Bay. ?I have enough belts in my house, and with the money I saved, I can buy any belt I want. I can be the champion of whatever I want in my house.
?This fight sells itself.?
Alvarez has agreed to the sanctioning fee.
The green WBC middleweight belt holds unique significance in Mexico, because of past champions from that country. Alvarez will try to join countrymen and sport legends Julio Cesar Chavez and De La Hoya as title-holders.
?Absolutely. Millions and millions of people (in Mexico) recognize the WBC belt, the green belt, as champion. That?s the motivation for Canelo,? De La Hoya aid. ?He wants to prove and show to everyone, it might not mean anything to Cotto, but it means the world to him and it means the world to all his countryman.?
