Miguel Cotto and promoter Roc Nation Sports have parted ways.
According to ESPN, Cotto split with the company owned by music star Jay Z because of issues regarding money being paid to Cotto regarding a potential fight against Yoshihiro Kamegai.
The fight had been in negotiations for some time now, but many issues arose early on. According to the report, Cotto wanted more money from Roc Nation Sports than they would be willing to give him. HBO, who has long been Cotto’s television home and one of the network’s biggest boxing names, was not interested in airing the fight unless there was a major fight coming afterwards. A venue had not been decided for the fight, although there were several venues that were being looked at. June 24 was the tentative date for the fight, but nothing was official.
Kamegai, who is signed on to Golden Boy Promotions, has reportedly signed the contract, but Cotto did not. Kamegai is a former Japanese champion as a super lightweight, but never challenged for a major world title. Kamegai has a 27-3-2 record with 24 KOs.
Cotto’s future had been in doubt in regards as to what division he would compete in after losing the world middleweight title to Canelo Alvarez in 2015. Cotto’s last three fights were at middleweight, but has spent the majority of the last 11 years at welterweight and super welterweight, fighting the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Zab Judah.
After knocking out Sergio Martinez in the 10th round in 2014 to win the middleweight world championship, Cotto split from longtime promoter Top Rank and signed with Roc Nation Sports.
Cotto was supposed to fight James Kirkland on HBO pay-per-view at The Ford Center at The Star, where the Dallas Cowboys practice and a venue previously being looked at for the Kamegai fight. The fight was canceled after Kirkland fractured his nose weeks before the fight. Cotto has previously stated that 2017 would be his final year of boxing. There is no indication when Cotto would return to the ring for the first time since 2015 and who will fight him.
