Miguel Cotto's Next Fight: 4 Potential Opponents

The big fight has come and gone. 

Miguel Cotto dropped a unanimous decision, along with his middleweight championship, to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The fight didn't live up to the hype in terms of high-octane action in every round, but it did provide a fitting entry in the long history of Puerto Rico vs. Mexico boxing.

Cotto's loss is his first since hiring Freddie Roach and winning three straight fights, including the middleweight crown from Sergio Martinez last year, and the question remains if he plans to continue fighting at all.

In the event that he does, we've done a little bit of the work for him and collected four attractive opponents who could make for a good next fight out.

These are the best potential opponents for Miguel Cotto's next fight.

4. Gennady Golovkin

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Cotto would probably be placing himself on a suicide mission, but he could go the route of proving the naysayers and doubters wrong and put himself in the running to face Golovkin, should Canelo decide to pass.

He's never avoided a tough challenge in his career, developing a reputation as a fighter who took on all comers, and he's looked just plain bad trying to talk himself out of facing the biggest dog on the block. 

But why the hell would Cotto go near GGG after a loss when he never seemed interested in the fight when he reigned atop the middleweight division? 

It's a good question.

Cotto doesn't have much left to prove at this point, but it would be an impressive and brave (microcosm of his career) move to go after Golovkin when he's coming off a loss and has no rational basis for that decision. You can call it crazy, but we call it the last stand of a brave warrior who made a career of never backing down. 

He'd get more respect for facing Golovkin, even if he should lose on the first punch of the first round, than he did by running from him like he had the plague, especially since it's seemed so blatant at times.

And, besides, Freddie Roach, the man responsible for Cotto's late-career resurgence, is confident of victory.

Sure, there's a 99.9 percent chance this won't happen, but if it did, you'd all still watch.

3. Timothy Bradley

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Bradley presents an attractive option for Cotto, who no longer has any need to pretend to campaign at middleweight after the WBC removed its title from his waist ahead of the loss to Canelo on Saturday night. Cotto could meet the four-division champion anywhere between junior middleweight and middleweight.

Mike Coppinger of USA Today reported back in June that Bradley was willing to move up as high as 160 pounds to face Golovkin in what would likely be a terrible idea, or the winner of Cotto vs. Canelo. We can applaud him for his bravery, but that big of a jump may not even be necessary at this point.

Desert Storm has always had the look of an elite fighter on the cusp, one big, meaningful win short of attaining the elusive type of respect a fighter of his caliber deserves. His first start under Teddy Atlas went as well as one could hope and resulted in an impressive stoppage of the usually durable Brandon Rios on Nov 7. 

That's the type of win that raises some eyebrows, even if you want to argue that Rios' hard lifestyle and many in-ring wars had more to do with the result than anything Bradley did particularly well. 

Bob Arum, who promotes Bradley, had an acrimonious split with Cotto when the Puerto Rican icon signed on with Roc Nation Sports, but, if one thing holds true with Uncle Bob, he'll look the other way on hard feelings if there's money to be made.

2. Canelo Alvarez

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The judges crowned the right man on Saturday night when they awarded Canelo a deserved victory over Cotto in one of the most anticipated fights of the year. But their math, well, it just plain sucked.

It seems very hard to imagine how anyone objective could watch that fight and determine that Cotto won only one or two rounds, but that's just what judges Burt Clements and Dave Moretti did. 

Let's be clear: Canelo won the fight, but he didn't win every round. Many of the 12 were extremely tight and could've swung either way. Those cards create a false perception that this was a blowout when that wasn't the case.

The fight was a much more tactical affair than expected and, while it did heat up in spots, largely was fought through who could control the time and space of the ring rather than who can land the biggest bombs.

Cotto began the fight well, using lateral movement and his jab to force Canelo to chase. 

The middle of the fight seemed to be where the dynamic shifted, with Canelo upping his aggression and increasingly landing against a Cotto who seemed frustrated that his big shots (that felled many a quality foe) weren't even dinging the bigger man.

Still, it seemed the fight was on the table late, which was where Canelo iced it.

So, why do this again? 

It didn't live up to the massively overblown hype of national rivalries, but it was a quality, high-level fight between two of the best in the sport. If neither man elects to face Golovkin, then it's probably the most logical choice, but this time in Dallas or New York City. 

1. Andy Lee

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Andy Lee is by far the least sexy name on this list.

He's not the most identifiable, the most skilled or the fight that most fans will want to see next.

But if you think he's not highly marketable, then you are truly clueless when it comes to what makes big-time boxing tick in the Big Apple.

If you want to sell a big fight in New York City, say at Madison Square Garden, you can't do better than matching up a Puerto Rican fighter (with a huge fanbase in the city) against an Irish fighter. The bout would sell out MSG (not a gimme by any means), and you can mark that down so you're not shocked if it ever comes to pass.

Lee rallied from a pair of early knockdowns to floor Peter Quillin in the seventh and secure a close draw this past April at the Barclays Center, and the Irish power puncher had plenty of fans clad in the orange and green there to support him against Brooklyn's adopted son.

He needs to take care of business in an extremely dangerous fight this December in London against undefeated challenger Billy Joe Saunders before this even becomes a possibility.

That's not an easy fight, but, assuming he emerges with his belt intact, Lee could be an attractive choice for Cotto to regain a share of the middleweight crown and make one more nice pot of extra cash before he walks off into the sunset and awaits the Hall of Fame.

Puerto Rico vs. Ireland in NYC?

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