The illustrious career of Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto is soon coming to an end, at least according to him.
Cotto spoke to the media at a Manhattan, New York hotel while promoting his upcoming pay-per-view fight against James Kirkland on February 25. He said this would be the final year of his 17-year career.
?This is the last year of my career and I want to end my career in the best way possible,? Cotto said. ?I knew I wanted to come back and this is the way that I want to do it. I want to have two or three fights this year. We will see.?
Cotto's career includes a Hall of Fame-worthy list of opponents faced, such as Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley, Sergio Martinez, Zab Judah, Antonio Margirito and Canelo Alvarez, whom Cotto is hoping is trying to get a rematch from.
Canelo defeated Cotto in his last fight back in 2015 via unanimous decision. Despite the judges clearly favoring Canelo in the cards (119-109, 118-110, 117-111), Cotto believed he won the fight and wants another chance to properly beat him in the ring.
?I?m here for the best fights and the best fighters out there, so if Canelo Alvarez wants to fight, to clear what happened November 2015, they know where to find me,? Cotto said. ?It was close. We orchestrated the plan in a perfect way and we believe that we were the winners of the fight.?
For the moment, his focus is on Kirkland. While there are no stakes in this pay-per-view, Cotto wants to come out on top to set up one last big fight for 2017. Kirkland wasn't Cotto's first choice of an opponent, as months of negotiations with Juan Manuel Marquez went south after both camps could not agree to a catchweight.
?I?m going to do the same as always with Freddie Roach,? Cotto said. ?We?re going to work hard and have a game plan in mind. We?re going to work for James Kirkland. James is a tough fighter and he?s going to go to work with victory on his mind. I?m going to work with that, too. I will do my best as always in Los Angeles with Freddie Roach commanding our group. All we need is to be ready for Kirkland. It?s going to be a great fight. I know that James always comes with a wining attitude. And I?m going to do the same.?
He is the first Puerto Rican to have won world titles in four different weight classes (light welterweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight) and is ranked as the world's fourth best light middleweight by The Ring magazine as of December 2016. During the prime of Cotto's career, he was considered a top 10 pound-for-pound boxer.
In the past few years, Cotto started his own promotion company, Miguel Cotto Promotions, where he organizes fight cards involving young Puerto Rican prospects. He's also been involved heavily in the creation of Boxeo Boricua, a Puerto Rican boxing show that began in 2005 which serves as a platform to showcase those Puerto Rican boxing prospects.