Sergio Martinez-Miguel Cotto Off the Table, Says DiBella

Promoter Lou DiBella told BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno that a potential catchweight fight between middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and Top Rank's junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto is off the table after a disagreement between DiBella and Arum.

In short, Arum did not want to co-promote with DiBella, and instead offered him a buyout figure of $2.5 million against the upside of the pay-per-view. DiBella offered a $5 million buyout, but Arum was not interested. DiBella said the promoters weren't mad about not coming to terms, but that his fighter (Martinez) is "not an opponent" and that DiBella is a promoter, and "not a booking agent."

All signs now point to a rematch between Cotto and Antonio Margarito, who recently went back to work in the gym following his punishing beating at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. DiBella, who is never at a loss for words, had this to say about that fight:

"How does Antonio Margarito, who got destroyed in two of his last three fights, and looked like s**t in the other fight against a total bum...how is he more viable in a rematch with Cotto, than Cotto against Martinez? And the winner fighting Pacquiao? Why would anyone buy either of those rematches?"

It's hard to argue the point as it stands there, but truthfully I'm not that disappointed about not getting Martinez-Cotto, which as much as I still like Cotto just screamed physical mismatch. Cotto was a fairly small welterweight and is a tiny junior middleweight. Martinez isn't a big middleweight, but is a big junior middleweight, and would have substantial height and reach advantages. Martinez is older than Cotto, but has also taken far less punishment in his career and seems to be peaking lately, while Cotto peaked years ago.

Of course, Lou knows exactly how Cotto-Margarito II is viable. It's got a huge amount of controversial backstory, both guys are still stars within their target demographics, it's Puerto Rico-Mexico, and it's all-Top Rank.

For DiBella's fighter, the end result of this is probably a Sergio Martinez fight that isn't all that exciting. As good as he is and as much as he deserves a major fight, there just isn't one available at 160 pounds, really. The new crop of strong young middleweights won't be ready for him until the latter stages of 2011 at the earliest, and the guys up top are along the lines of Felix Sturm. Of course DiBella and Martinez are willing to lose a few pounds to fight someone like Pacquiao, Cotto or Mayweather, but those guys are just smaller than he is and can make a lot of money without fighting Martinez. The same cannot be said of Martinez's other options, not that he'll wind up starving no matter who he fights.