Miguel Cotto News: WBC strips Cotto of middleweight title, three days before fight with Canelo Alvarez
Middleweight world champion Miguel Cotto was stripped of his WBC title belt.
According to a report by Bad Left Hook, the World Boxing Council decided to take such measures, mainly because of Cotto and his team's inability to "abide by the governing rules & reguations." The WBC released its official statement on Wednesday.
"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 did not agree to comply with the WBC Rules & Regulations, while Saúl Alvarez has agreed to do so. Accordingly, the WBC must rule on the matter prior to the fight," an excerpt of the statement reads.
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The WBC did not specify which rule Cotto and his team violated, but according to a report by Dan Rafael of ESPN, an anonymous source says it was about a sanctioning fee worth $300,000 that the boxer refused to pay.
The report adds that an extra $800,000 was being asked from Cotto, as a fee to pay for fellow middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin to step aside.
"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," the report reads. "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."
Cotto was reportedly given until Monday to pay said fee. He also spoke with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman over telephone to restate his disagreement, which then resulted to the immediate stripping of the title.
Six-division world champion and Golden Boy Promotion head honcho Oscar De La Hoya also reacted on the matter.
"It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace to the promotion," told Boxingscene.com. "It's a disgrace to the sport to do something like that. Every fighter dreams of fighting for the WBC middleweight championship and to do something like that is a disgrace."
