If you thought the world of boxing and their multitude of championships couldn’t get any more complicated, the WBC decides to prove that it can.
Miguel Cotto has been stripped of his WBC middleweight championship, yes the championship that is on the line this weekend vs Canelo Alvarez, because he did not pay his reported $300k sanctioning fee.
“The World Boxing Council worked tirelessly through a process that began over two years ago to secure the celebration of the highly anticipated fight between Miguel Cotto and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. The WBC is proud of that accomplishment that is giving boxing fans around the world a very important fight to see,” the WBC said in a statement. “After several weeks of communications, countless attempts and good faith time extensions trying to preserve the fight as a WBC world championship, Miguel Cotto and his promotion [Roc Nation Sports] did not agree to comply with the WBC rules and regulations, while Saul Alvarez has agreed to do so. Accordingly, the WBC must rule on the matter prior to the fight.
“The WBC hereby announces that effective immediately it has withdrawn recognition of Miguel Cotto as WBC world middleweight champion.”
This is odd timing to strip a champion of his title but the WBC has the right to do so whenever they please. What makes this situation more bizarre are the possible outcomes of Saturday’s fight.
If Canelo Alvarez wins he will win the now vacated WBC middleweight title but if Miguel Cotto is victorious the belt will be given to the WBC interm title holder, which happens to be Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin. ESPN explained some of the details:
In addition to seeking $300,000 from each fighter in sanctioning fees, the WBC also required $25,000 apiece from the two promoters, Roc Nation Sports and Golden Boy Promotions. When the fight was made part of the deal was that Cotto and Roc Nation had to agree to pay Golovkin – Cotto’s mandatory challenger – step-aside money to allow the fight to go through.
According to a source with knowledge of that agreement, Golovkin was paid $800,000, and after having already paid a portion of the step-aside fee, Cotto felt that having to pay another $300,000 to have the WBC sanction the fight was too much.
This sets up an interesting prospects for GGG. If Canelo wins GGG remains the mandatory challenger and would be on a collision course with Canelo in 2016. If Cotto wins GGG becomes champion and Cotto will have to chase him to get his belt back.
Either way the fans win because it forces one of these two fighters to step into the ring with boxing’s most feared fighter.