Miguel Cotto confirms HBO return, Freddie Roach partnership

Miguel Cotto will return to HBO airwaves for an October 5 main event, and the three-division world titleholder confirms that he will be replacing trainer Pedro Diaz with Freddie Roach.

Cotto used Twitter to confirm both bits of news, which have been rumored for a few days now.

Cotto (37-4, 30 KO) has lost two straight fights to Floyd Mayweather and Austin Trout, the latter a move to Showtime as he was working with (but not promoted by) Golden Boy at the time. Cotto has made his star mostly on HBO over the years, but has been totally willing to jump to whatever the best situation has been.

There had also been rumor that Top Rank would reunite with Cotto for this upcoming fight, though Cotto will not be signing a new deal with the company that helped build him into a superstar. He's reportedly keen on staying a free agent, so that he can, again, jump wherever the best fight for him might be, regardless of promoter or TV network.

The 32-year-old Cotto is without question past his prime, but losing to Mayweather and losing to a younger, stronger, bigger man in Trout isn't exactly tolling the bells. It will definitely be interesting to see how he looks in this next fight, though, and keep in mind that moving to Roach means yet another trainer switch in a career that has been full of them since his explosive parting with uncle Evangelista Cotto. Since then, Miguel has been trained by Joe Santiago (who is not a boxing trainer), Emanuel Steward, Pedro Diaz, and now Roach. Trainer hopping like this rarely turns out well.

This also likely kills the report that Alexander Povetkin -- who will face Wladimir Klitschko on October 5 -- will be trained by Roach for his next fight.