Image by Getty Images via @daylife"We had an honest-to-goodness conversation about the fight," DiBella said. "Bob knows we can easily make the fight. He will be meeting with Cotto's people this week and presenting them with various options. Cotto has already proven his mettle time and again, but to do a fight like this, he will get nothing but props from people."
Martinez is willing to drop down to 155 pounds and put his middleweight championship at stake against Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs), who won a junior middleweight belt in June by stopping Yuri Foreman in the ninth round at Yankee Stadium -- one fight after Manny Pacquiao knocked Cotto out in the 12th round to take his welterweight belt.
"Cotto is an elite fighter, and this is a very good fight for boxing," said Martinez, who is already back in the gym doing some light training after the win over Williams. "It's a big Latino fight. I will fight him at 155. I would love to fight Cotto. I have a lot of respect for him."
Said DiBella: "Cotto wouldn't be risking his 154-pound belt and would be getting a shot at the middleweight title. If Cotto loses, he goes back and defends his title in other big fights, like against Antonio Margarito [in a rematch] or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. If Cotto beats Martinez, it's a huge accomplishment. If he didn't win, he's still 154-[pound] champion and the Chavez and Margarito bouts are still there for him. It's like the Martinez fight is a free pass. Like he gets two bites at the apple."
DiBella said he and Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs) respect Cotto as "a true warrior, so if Martinez has to struggle a little bit to make 155, so be it. It might be a little bit uncomfortable, but he's not that far removed from fighting at junior middleweight. You know it would be a big fight."
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=rafael_dan&id=5878407
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