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By Dan Ambrose: Former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) wanted a chance to win a fourth division world title, so he selected 38-year-old injury-plagued WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) to fight on June 7th instead of an arguably much more dangerous WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Well, now Cotto’s fight with Martinez will be taking place at a 159 lb. catch-weight instead of at the full weight for the division at 160.

There will be no re-hydration limit for the fight, thankfully. It would be interesting to know if that was something that Cotto wanted for the fight. It would be a useless thing anyway because Sergio doesn’t rehydrate up a lot in weight like some middleweights do.

Sergio’s WBC title will still technically be on the line for the fight, because the middleweight division’s weight limit is from 155-160, with the 160 number being the upper limit for the division. But it makes you wonder if Cotto is trying to stack the deck in his favor in order to make sure that he captures a fourth division world title.

It means a lot to Cotto to win a 4th title in a different weight class, but why does he need a catch-weight handicap in order to try and win it? It’s bad enough that he’s selected the soon to be 39-year-old Sergio Martinez to fight for the title instead of the guy that is perceived to be the best middleweight champion in Gennady Golovkin. Sergio turns 39 on February 21st of this month, and he hasn’t fought since last April when he won a controversial decision over Martin Murray.

Sergio injured a knee and his left hand in that fight, and he’s been out of action due to the injuries over since. Does Cotto really need a catch-weight handicap of 159 to try and beat Sergio to take his title? You would think that Cotto’s already got all the advantages that he needs with Sergio almost 40-years-old, no longer fighting like he used to, and dealing with injury problems.

Cotto fought Manny Pacquiao at a catch-weight in their fight in 2009, and he wasn’t happy about it. So why is Cotto fighting Sergio at a catch-weight instead of the full weight? It’s not as if Sergio is a big middleweight, because he’s still basically a junior middleweight who fights at middleweight.

When there’s a handicap involved in a fight, it kind of cheapens it in the eyes a lot of fans. Of course, a win for Cotto over Sergio at 159 won’t have an asterisk next to it in the record books. It’ll be listed as just a normal victory with Cotto beating Sergio to capture his WBC title. I don’t see the point of it.