Cotto fights for legacy

Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto may have been stripped of his World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight title because of his refusal to pay the boxing organization’s outrageous fees, but the 160-pound throne will still be on the line when he takes on Mexican slugger Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 knockouts) will be crowned new WBC middleweight champion if he defeats Cotto. In the event Cotto (40-4, 33 knockouts) prevails, the WBC throne will remain vacant and reigning interim champ (yes, despite having a regular champ the WBC still maintains an interim champ) Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 knockouts) will be promoted to regular champ status. Cotto chose not to keep the belt after the WBC assessed him a whopping $1.1 million in fees. Cotto was to give the WBC $300,000 as sanctioning fee and Golovkin $800,000 as “step-aside fee.” Golovkin was the mandatory challenger to Cotto’s title and the “step-aside” fee, literally speaking, is the cash needed for Golovkin to give way to the richer Cotto-Alvarez showdown.