Miguel Cotto from Puerto Rico has said it will be his last fight when he defends the WBO junior-middleweight belt against Sadam Ali from Brooklyn, New York at the Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday night.
Since making his debut in February 2001 the 37-year-old Cotto (41-5; 33) has held the WBO junior-welterweight, WBA welterweight, WBO welterweight, WBA junior-middleweight and WBA middleweight belts in an illustrious career.
Ali, 29, who is rated at number seven by the WBO was considered a prospect after making his professional debut in January 2009 and winning his next 23 fights against some ordinary opposition.
However, this all came to an end when he stepped up in opposition on 5 March, 2016 against Jessie Vargas in a clash for the vacant WBO welterweight belt, and after being knocked down in rounds eight and nine was stopped at 2 minutes and 9 seconds into the ninth round.
Since this setback, Ali (25-1; 14) has had three fights, winning two on points and one on a knockout.
Some are of the opinion that he does not deserve this fight as he has not fought at the junior-middleweight limit in recent years.
Cotto, a real warrior, has been a credit to the game with his only losses coming against world champions Antonio Margarito, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Austin Trout and Saul Alvarez.
The other major organisation champions are WBA, Erislandy Lara, WBC, Jermeel Charlo and IBF, Jarrett Hurd.
On the undercard, Rey Vargas (30-0; 22) from Mexico makes the second defence of his WBC junior-featherweight belt, against Colombian Oscar Negrete (17-0; 7), who is based in California.
Vargas, 22, won the vacant WBC belt in February this year with a majority points decision over Gavin McDonnell and made a successful defence against Ronny Rios (28-1) in August.
The other major organisation champions are WBA, Guillermo Rigondeaux (Cuba), IBF, Ryosuke Iwasa (Japan) and WBO, Jessie Magdaleno (US).
