Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto's megafight will no longer push through as both camps reportedly failed to agree on financial terms.
"The deal is off the table with Cotto. They did not accept. So Canelo decided to move on. We had a deadline. We had our fifth deadline [Friday night], and Canelo has decided, because Cotto and [attorney] Gaby [Penagaricano] turned down the deal, he is obviously not going to be waiting for nobody," De La Hoya was quoted Sports World News as saying.
A lot of boxing fans were anticipating the Alvarez-Cotto fight aside from the highly-anticipated bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. which of course, is still being ironed, ESPN added in its report.
Meanwhile, Alvarez's decision to pull out from the talks disappointed Cotto's camp. However, they understand that not all business deals follow through.
"I did speak to Oscar late [Friday night]. He said, 'We have to make a deal.' I said, 'We're not there yet. If you have to move on, I respect that. If you have to move, you have to move,'" Cotto's adviser Pengaricano said, as quoted by Sports World News .
"It's always the financial side. There was no agreement on that. I don't know what would have happened if we had more time. If Oscar doesn't have more time, he doesn't have more time. It's a great fight, but Miguel doesn't need it for his career. So if it doesn't happen, so be it. He's OK. No problem. If Oscar needs to move he needs to move. We're not going to go back to them. We'll huddle and meet Miguel on Tuesday, and we will start planning," Pengaricano added.
Now that the deal is "dead", as Sports World News put it, Cotto is also reportedly dealing with the possibility that his rematch with Mayweather will not happen anymore since the undefeated American fighter is already busy ironing out details on his fight against Pacquiao. But if the megafight will not push through, it is highly possible that Mayweather will choose to fight Cotto over other boxers lining up to face him.
"There's several opponents, so it depends what opponent we choose, then we'll decide if it's pay-per-view or HBO. If Mayweather-Pacquiao happens then that's the only fight that out of respect for the fans, that we will move from [May 2]. But if Mayweather fights Cotto or Amir Khan then we're going," De La Hoya added, as quoted by ESPN.
