On March 12th Miguel Cotto will defend his WBA junior middleweight crown when he faces off with former welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. While the 37-year old Mayorga isn’t the most ideal candidate, his pre-fight trash talk and aggressive nature inside of the ring should keep things interesting. Earlier today each man was spotted in New York City in somewhat of a press conference to officially announce the clash. Also in attendance was Cotto’s promoter Bob Arum and Mayorga’s boss Don King. The fight marks the first time to two power players have worked together on an event in nearly five years.
<--- Slideshow: King, Arum, Cotto, and Mayorga in New York
King and Arum have been in the business over forty years and once looked at each other as fierce rivals. But as they inched closer to their twilight years the two men have seemed to warm up to one another with no signs of animosity to be found. The last event that they collaborated on was the Floyd Mayweather-Zab Judah clash at the Thomas & Mack Center in Nevada in April of 2006.
While many expect Mayorga to try and rile up the always cool and calm Cotto, the two pugilists could be seen sharing some laughs with one another, which definitely served as somewhat of a surprise. For their part, King and Arum participated in select media interviews to help start drumming up interest for the Showtime-televised pay-per-view event.
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
