Cotto hammers Martinez,Boxing Challenge

Miguel Cotto hammered Sergio Martinez to the floor four times, three of them in round one alone, and grabbed the WBC Middleweight belt held by the Argentine when the champion's corner stopped the bout before the start of round ten in New York City.

I, of course, didn't see the fight being at the road office, but my fellow fight fan, Ramon Malpica, reports that Cotto shook Martinez with every shot and that Martinez never looked steady on his legs after knee surgery after his last defense against Martin Murray of England.
When you consider that Martinez is a fighter that bases his entire style off his movement, the leg issues meant doom for the 39-year-old.

Now that Martinez is likely to step away from the title picture and Miguel Cotto has the title held as the lineal "true" Middleweight champion -what's next?
I would not think that Cotto or promoter Bob Arum have any interest in unifying with the WBA champ and (in my opinion) best fighter in the division Gennady Golvokin, WBO champ Peter Quillin brings little in marketability along with the Al Haymon factor and IBF champion Sam Soliman brings even less than Quillin, although if Cotto needs a stay active bout, Soliman makes a lot of sense for Cotto.
Soliman would bring a belt with him, would likely make more money than he would elsewhere, but far cheaper than the other names and should have no problems coming to U.S soil.
I could see Cotto-Soliman in the fall if things are unable to be worked out for a bigger bout.

Considering the above factors, there are two bouts to be made that would be huge interest fights.
Floyd Mayweather defeated Cotto once in an entertaining (for a Floyd Mayweather fight) bout and could look at this as a way to annex another division title against a fighter that he defeated.
Canelo Alvarez would be an interesting fight with the Mexico-Puerto Rico angle along with two fighters unafraid to stand and slug it out.
Either would be huge pay-TV numbers and both could be made, although promotional arrangements suggest that Alvarez would be more likely with Golden Boy and Top Rank recently making up a little bit.
Two things are sure to me-the middleweight division has taken a leap up in interest and the big loser other than Sergio Martinez last night was Gennady Golovkin, who may have to keep knocking out second level contenders to keep busy.
I doubt  Miguel Cotto will fight Golovkin, I believe Sergio Martinez would have...

That moves us to the boxing challenge, where due to personal issues,I didn't have time to post the picks on a weak undercard.
Ramon and I did make our picks though and it wasn't a great night.
I picked Martinez by a unanimous decision and earned zero points for the loss, although I did get one from Marvin Sonsona's split decision win over Wilfredo Vasquez Jr.
I picked the decision to be unanimous, so I only earned the lone point.
Ramon's night was worse as he picked Martinez via a 6th round KO and Vasquez to win a decision, so he added no points on the night.
I gained one standings point and trimmed Ramon's lead to 44-41.

Back later or tomorrow!!!