What's Next For Miguel Cotto?

The good old days - for Cotto.

A year ago Miguel Cotto was on top of the world. By teaming up with Freddie Roach, his career was seemingly resurrected in stunning fashion. Indeed, his victory over Sergio Martinez, whether Martinez was hurt or not, was worthy of note. Not only was Cotto looking impressive, he was entertaining in a flashy, boxer-puncher style.

A lot has changed, thanks to a top notch performance by Canelo Alvarez, who bested Cotto in the ring last November. It was a close fight, fairly impressive and intriguing - but there can be no doubt Canelo won fair and square (I've rewatched it just to be sure). Some say there may be a rematch, but I don't see why there would be. Nor, I suspect, does most anyone else.

For Cotto, legendary as he is, just isn't likely to beat Canelo. As for middleweight terror, GGG, forget about it. There's no way Cotto is going near that guy (Canelo may not be all that keen on it, either). GGG is simply too big for the heavily tattooed icon to handle. Indeed, Cotto isn't even a true middleweight.

So, where to from here? There still may be some big money in the Cotto name, but will he ever be the top level player he was - even after his teaming up with Roach? If Bernard Hopkins has taught us anything, it's that one should never say never. Will Cotto ever be part of a huge pay per view like last November's again, though (it was said to have gotten close to a million buys)?

Probably not. Perhaps right now the man will give up the façade of being a middleweight and stick around the junior middleweight division. Perhaps he will even consider going down to welterweight (that may prove difficult for him to do at this point, though). Indeed, it seems the only question now is whether or not the man wants to continue challenging himself or prefers to essentially pick up paycheck opponents.

Then again, maybe Cotto will simply retire. He's had a great run, after all.