| Fight Name: | Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Álvarez |
| Fight Date: | November 21, 2015 |
| Location: | Mandalay Bay Events Center, Paradise, Nevada, U.S. |
| Titles: | The Ring, TBRB and vacant WBC middleweight titles |
| Fighter1: |  Miguel Cotto |
| Nickname1: | "Junito" |
| Hometown1: | Caguas, Puerto Rico |
| Purse1: | $15,000,000[1] |
| Record1: | 40–4 (33 KO) |
| Height1: | 5 ft 8 in |
| Weight1: | 153+1/2 lb |
| Style1: | Orthodox |
| Recognition1: | The Ring/TBRB Middleweight Champion 4-division world champion |
| Fighter2: |  Saúl Álvarez |
| Nickname2: | "Canelo" ("Cinnamon") |
| Hometown2: | Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico |
| Purse2: | $5,000,000 |
| Record2: | 45–1–1 (32 KO) |
| Height2: | 5 ft 8 in |
| Weight2: | 155 lb |
| Style2: | Orthodox |
| Recognition2: | WBC No. 1 Ranked Middleweight The Ring/TBRB No. 1 Ranked Light middleweight Former Unified Light middleweight champion |
| Result: | Álvarez wins via 12-round unanimous decision (117-111, 119-109, 118-110) |
Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Álvarez was a professional boxing event which took place on November 21, 2015 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada.[2] It was televised by HBO pay-per-view.[3]
Having made one defence of the middleweight championship he had won from Sergio Martinez, dominating former titleholder Daniel Geale, Miguel Cotto agreed to face former Unified Light middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez with the winner set to face WBC "interim" champion Gennady Golovkin.[4] [5] [6]
The fight took place at a catchweight of 155 lbs at Cotto's request.[7]
On November 17, four days before the bout, the WBC announced that they were withdrawing recognition of Cotto as their Middleweight World Champion.[8] The WBC's reasoning was "After several weeks of communications, countless attempts and good faith time extensions trying to preserve the fight as a WBC World Championship, Miguel Cotto and his promotion did not agree to comply with the WBC Rules & Regulations, while Canelo Alvarez has agreed to do so."[8] This meant that, though Cotto was stripped of his title, Alvarez still had the opportunity to win the championship. Cotto then stated publicly that the reason the WBC stripped him of his title was because he refused to pay their sanctioning fees, which he believed to be excessive.[9]
The co-feature of the fight were Takashi Miura, defending the WBC world super featherweight title against Francisco Vargas, who is the mandatory challenger.[10] Vargas defeated Miura via ninth-round technical knockout (TKO) victory, which eventually named The Ring magazine Fight of the Year for 2015.
The fight was close throughout as both boxers were cautious in their attacks, neither fighter was seriously hurt. As Cotto attacked with a jab the whole fight, and didn't sit down on his punches, instead deciding to employ movement. Álvarez responded with power punches, landing especially to the body. Both fighters showed iron chins, with Cotto repeatedly coming back after hard shots to the head.
The scorecards at the end of the night were highly controversial as they did not show the competitiveness of the fight, with many boxing pundits having Álvarez winning by a round or two, others called it a draw. The official judges' scorecards read 119–109, 118–110, and 117–111 for Álvarez. ESPN.com had the fight much closer, but still scored it in favour of Álvarez at 115–113, as did The Guardian.[11] HBO's unofficial scorer Harold Lederman scored the fight 117–111 for Álvarez, as did Doug Fischer of The Ring.[12]
According to CompuBox, Álvarez landed 155 of 484 punches (32 percent), and Cotto landed 129 of 629 (21 percent), with Álvarez landing the heavier blows and inflicting more damage. There was a fraction of the boxing world that felt Cotto won by both a small margin, while others felt he won decisively. Cotto left immediately after hearing the scorecards, with his team and family.[13] [14]
According to HBO, the fight generated 900,000 buys on PPV, which equated to around $58 million in domestic revenue. This was the first time since 2002, that a PPV generated 900,000 which didn't include Mayweather, Pacquiao or De La Hoya. That bout was a heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.[15]
Confirmed bouts:[16]
| Weight Class | Weight | vs. | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middleweight | 155 lbs. | def. | Miguel Cotto (c) | UD | 12/12 | ||||
| Super Featherweight | 130 lbs. | Francisco Vargas | def. |  Takashi Miura (c) | TKO | 9/12 | 1:31 | ||
| Bantamweight | 121 lbs. |  Guillermo Rigondeaux | def. |  Drian Francisco | UD | 10/10 | |||
| Featherweight | 126 lbs. |  Ronny Rios | def. | Jayson Velez | UD | 10/10 |
| align=center | Country | align=center | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Event | |||
| Azteca | |||
| RPC | |||
| BoxNation[17] | |||
| HBO |