Miguel Cotto: I Will Only Fight in NY; Arum: End This Call

Moments ago in a media conference call, junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto declared that he will only fight his scheduled December 3 opponent, Antonio Margarito, in New York City.

This comes hours before the New York State Athletic Commission is set to rule on Margarito's licensing status. It also follows several declarations by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum that the fight will go on regardless of the NYSAC ruling, in another state if necessary.

Cotto initially dropped the bomb in response to a question from The Daily News. "I will not fight in any other state. If the New York Commission won't approve Margarito then I will respect the commission."

At this point in the conversation, Arum broke in and asserted that the conference call was not the appropriate place to discuss possible venue changes. "I don't want to get into contractual issues," the Hall-of-Fame promoter asserted.

But moments later, a reporter from Telemundo repeated the question, asking Cotto to clarify if he indeed would not fight in another venue. Cotto repeated that he will only fight in New York.

"I signed a contract for New York," the Puerto Rican native and New York City-adopted fighter stated.

Arum then broke in and stated that it was time to end the call. "Let's wrap this up," he declared. The operater then told those of us waiting in queue to ask our questions to please disconnect, as the call was over.

The entire call took place in less than 30 minutes.

Check back at Bleacher Report for updates. The NYSAC is set to rule on the matter at 3 pm this afternoon.

Update: As of 5:21 p.m. NYSAC has still not ruled on Margarito's status. 

Update: As of 5:55 p.m.  Dan Rafael of ESPN is reporting on twitter that the licence has been granted. The fight will be held in New York.