The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of June 7
Boxing may well have found its next superfight.
Miguel Cotto destroyed former unified middleweight champion Daniel Geale on Saturday night, presumably setting up a rivalry match with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez later in the year.
Can we please just cut through all the red tape and nonsense and make this happen without any histrionics and drama?
Looking ahead to next weekend, Deontay Wilder makes the first defense of his WBC Heavyweight Championship in "Sweet Home Alabama" Saturday night on Showtime.
But why is America's champion facing a challenger with no real shot of, you know, challenging him?
Also, can the Axe Man continue chopping down foes?
And who is the best fit for Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s supposed final fight in September?
Two clear frontrunners have emerged, and we make our pick.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week.
Can We Move on to Cotto vs. Canelo Please?
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Cotto decimated Geale on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, to set up a showdown later in the year with Mexican superstar Canelo.
The Puerto Rican legend smartly zeroed in his attack on his weight-drained foe's midsection and dominated every minute before ending the carnage with a second knockdown at 1:28 of Round 4.
Geale, a former world champion, looked like a shell of himself after being forced to drain more than 10 pounds in the week prior to the fight in order to make a contracted 157-pound catchweight. He had no legs, speed or pop on his shots.
None.
In addition to the clear physical effects that took on his body, the Aussie made several tactical errors that sped up the process of his inevitable defeat. You don't "hook with a hooker," as the old boxing adage tells us, but Geale did, got clipped and stopped.
What next for the middleweight champion who clearly isn't a middleweight?
Asked in the ring post-fight by HBO's Max Kellerman about his desire to fight WBA champion, WBC mandatory No. 1 contender and division's best fighter Gennady Golovkin, who was ringside, Cotto responded with a long "ahhhhhh."
That was followed by a less-than-convincing "why not," but only after business with Canelo is dispensed.
A preliminary agreement for that fight was already reached provided that both men could take care of their interim bouts.
Canelo knocked out James Kirkland on May 9 in Houston, and now that Cotto has held up his share, the negotiations can be finalized.
It has the air of inevitability, but it had that in January before falling apart.
Let's hope that doesn't happen once again here.
It's the biggest fight that can be made in boxing right now, and, unlike the last one to get that title, it guarantees action and a renewal of the great Puerto Rico vs. Mexico rivalry.
It's a win-win scenario for everyone, especially the fans.
Why Is Deontay Wilder Fighting a No-Hope Challenger?
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Wilder, the first American heavyweight champion since Shannon Briggs back in 2007, makes the first defense of his championship Saturday night in his native Alabama against Eric Molina.
Molina is a 33-year-old no-hope challenger who has only one claim to fame—getting blasted out in one round by former heavyweight contender Chris Arreola back in early 2012.
Let's be real here.
This isn't a very good fight, and it's one that should produce nothing short of an early demolition win for Wilder in his homecoming at Bartow Arena in Birmingham.
Wilder has taken a bunch of flak for his opponent selection here in a fight that will be televised as a main event on Showtime, but he doesn't apologize and claims Molina was the only guy willing to accept his terms.
"We have a lot of other opponents, but Molina was the one to understand the opportunity that lies at hand. Some people can price themselves out and some teams make it so difficult that the fight won’t happen," Wilder said, per Edward Chaykovsky of BoxingScene.com.
"You can have the money or the opportunity. Molina understands what the situation is, and he stepped up to the plate and understands the opportunity at hand to be the world heavyweight champion."
The situation is that Wilder's people wanted an opponent who wouldn't cost a whole lot of money or have a huge chance of upsetting potential prime-time fights with either recognized champ Wladimir Klitschko or top contender Tyson Fury.
If that's the case, they've hit one out of the park here.
Wilder should have no trouble restarting his knockout streak after going the distance to win the title from Bermane Stiverne earlier in the year. And then it'll have to be on to bigger and better things.
Will the Axe Man Chop Down Another Foe?
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Is there a better or more accurate nickname in boxing than Nicholas "The Axe Man" Walters?
Walters defends his WBA Featherweight Championship Saturday night on HBO from the Theater at Madison Square Garden against undefeated Colombian knockout artist Miguel Marriaga (20-0, 18 KO) in a fight promising fireworks.
The 28-year-old Jamaican world champion was considered by many to be a one-trick pony—a fighter who had tremendous natural power but who would eventually run into someone who could expose his technical flaws—until he thrashed Nonito Donaire last October.
The Axe Man outhit and outboxed the former pound-for-pound superstar in a star-making performance that laid to rest many of the concerns about his ability to compete with elite-level fighters.
Donaire may not have been near the level of the guy who won Fighter of the Year honors for beating four world champions in 2012, but he was still a competent pro and a huge step up in class for Walters.
Marriaga is something of an unknown commodity. He's got great raw numbers with 18 knockouts in 20 fights, but he's fought mainly in Colombia against suspect opposition. That includes one fighter with a record of 1-32-2 coming in and another at 1-38-3.
And, yes, those were two different fighters.
Every now and then one of these guys comes out of nowhere and proves to be the real deal, but Walters remains an overwhelming favorite in a fight that should allow him to chop down another foe.
Next up?
Hopefully Vasyl Lomachenko.
Now that would be some style matchup.
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Should Floyd Pick Khan or Brook?
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Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times tweeted last week that pound-for-pound king Mayweather could be closing in on his September opponent.
Britain's Amir Khan and Kell Brook are the front-runners to land the multimillion-dollar gig against boxing's undisputed top draw, and the call for one or the other could come within two weeks.
Khan, a former junior welterweight champion who took a tougher-than-expected decision from Chris Algieri last Saturday at the Barclays Center, has been openly lobbying for a Mayweather clash for years.
It's become almost comical by this point.
With his focus exclusively on Mayweather, Khan has repeatedly dismissed the possibility of facing Brook at the present time and has passed up other opportunities.
Brook recently defeated compatriot Frankie Gavin in impressive fashion to retain the lone 147-pound belt that hasn't been held by Mayweather. He's undefeated and a fast-rising sensation who may have already surpassed Khan in terms of cachet in Britain.
The ideal situation would be a Khan-Brook bout to determine the clear No. 1 contender for Mayweather's welterweight crown.
But that won't happen, at least not in time.
If you go just by each man's last fight, Brook was more impressive, though Khan was facing a tougher foe.
And wouldn't it be interesting, after years of chasing Mayweather and dismissing Brook, if Khan were to get passed over in favor of the Special One?
We Love Oscar, but He Was Joking...Right?
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De La Hoya always seems like a fighter who wishes he had a few more fights left in him.
That's not uncommon when you operate at a top level in the sport and have to make a sudden exit because it's just no longer there the way it used to be.
Many formerly great fighters talk about making a comeback after an extended retirement, and some do—Sugar Ray Leonard comes to mind—usually to disastrous results.
So when the Golden Boy told TMZ on Friday that he thinks about a comeback every day, it wasn't really anything groundbreaking or newsworthy.
It was the next part of the sentence that caught eyes.
"If I ever come back, and I think about it every day, I'll fight Triple G [Gennady Golovkin]," De La Hoya said.
That might be either the stupidest or most stone-cold-crazy idea in the history of the sport.
Maybe it's even both.
Oscar can't possibly be serious about coming back—we hope—or trying to fight Golovkin—we pray—but what he can do is persuade his main charge Canelo to do the deed for him sooner rather than later.
That's a better fight and more plausible than this crazy scenario, which, thankfully, has no shot of happening.
But, first, Cotto.
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeBoxing.
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