Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach revealed that former world champion Miguel Cotto wants a rematch with reigning World Boxing Council middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
Cotto lost his WBC middleweight crown last month after taking a unanimous decision loss to Alvarez during their title showdown. But for Roach, Cotto should have been declared the winner of the bout.
"I still think he won the fight," said Roach, who insisted that they landed the higher number of blows. "I thought the numbers we landed were much higher. I definitely think we won."
Frustrated with the result of the showdown, Roach said that he told Cotto to push for a rematch with Alvarez and the Puerto Rican boxing superstar is open to the idea.
"I told him I would love to get a rematch," Roach continued. "But he just smiled at me and said 'We'll see what happens.' We both thought we won the fight. I don't know if I've seen a worse decision in my life. 11 rounds to 1, there's just no way. We came up with a great game plan to out-box him, and I think we did."
Cotto, who has a 40-5 record with 33 knockout victories, could get the rematch that he wants, but BoxingNews24 noted that he could wait until 2017 to get another shot. The WBC also announced on Monday that Alvarez could defend his title against another fighter in May before facing mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin in the second half of 2016.
Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez told BoxingScene that Alvarez will likely make his first title defense on May 7 as a Cinco de Mayo weekend featured bout. Cotto is unlikely to get the rematch in May, knowing that Canelo's camp is already setting their sights on the showdown with Golovkin.
In fact, Gomez defended WBC's decision to give both Alvarez and Golovkin one more fights before their mandatory bouts. He said that the decision would give them more opportunity to generate interest for the highly-anticipated middleweight title showdown next year.
"The big fights, they take time to make them. Look at Pacquiao-Mayweather, how long did that take? It took six years or so to get that done," Gomez told BoxingScene. "I think it's a mega-fight. It's going to happen and it just comes down to the negotiations. It's a very complex negotiation."
