Canelo May Fight Cotto After All

Will Cotto share the stage with Canelo in the near future? 

If reports are to be believed, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez may end up stepping in the ring with Miguel Cotto, after all. Word is that Cotto is on track to fighting Jorge Sebastian Heiland, but that HBO won't be interested in that one unless Cotto first agrees to take on Canelo the fight after that.

That development, if it's true, is what's known as a big deal, for HBO is clearly not going to sit back and let Cotto fight just anyone with their blessing. He may be a great fighter, he may be on his way to the Hall of Fame, he may be enormously popular and lucrative, but Cotto is clearly not going to be allowed to go the Leo Santa Cruz route - at least not with HBO on board.

In truth, though, it would be unfair to toss Cotto in with the likes of Santa Cruz and Adonis Stevenson. Those two men have taken a lot of heat from the media and public for appearing to fear getting beat by talented foes. It's hard to imagine Cotto being afraid of Canelo...or anyone for that matter. He just appears ("appears" being the operative word here) to want things his way during negotiations - to a fault.

No one can have everything they want in life, however, at least not those with appetites as huge as Cotto's reportedly is. At the moment it's clear that he can't simply forgo Canelo and have HBO gleefully approve of whoever it is he wants to fight instead. Even the greatest of warriors don't have that kind of pull.

And Cotto is indeed a great warrior. Canelo is quite the warrior himself, however, and his eagerness to fight anyone, even if conditions aren't exactly to his liking, have made him appear to be the good guy in this saga. Cotto pretty much has two choices right now. He can fight Canelo, or he can fight Gennady Golovkin, If he doesn't, the bloom will be off the rose that sprouted up last year after he beat Sergio Martinez.

And that will be too bad.