Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Alvarez: Top Storylines as Superfight Looms

It's finally fight week for one of the most anticipated fights of the 2015 boxing calendar. 

Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto defends his WBC and the Ring Magazine Middleweight Championships against rising Mexican sensation Saul "Canelo" Alvarez Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on HBO pay-per-view.

Both fighters will be looking to carve out their own space in the annals of the legendary boxing rivalry between Puerto Rico and Mexico and secure national bragging rights with a win.

Cotto (40-4, 33 KO) revitalized his career after back-to-back losses by hiring veteran Hall of Fame cornerman Freddie Roach to be his lead trainer. The Puerto Rican became the first four-division champion in his nation's history with an upset of Sergio Martinez to claim the middleweight title in 2013 and has defended it once.

Canelo (45-1-1, 32 KO) was bred for boxing stardom. At just 25 years old, he's already one of the biggest figures in the sport and has consistently refused to shy away from challenges that many felt were too tough or quick. This fight has the potential to be his defining moment and catapult him to some truly rarefied air in the sport.

The big fight is just days away, so, without further delay, these are the hottest storylines for Cotto vs. Canelo!

This is a bit of a trick question, largely because both fighters are highly (but perhaps not equally) experienced.

Cotto has operated at or near the top of the sport for a decade, while Canelo, despite his youth, has been involved in many big fights and big events and made his pro debut at the age of 15. So he's been to a few rodeos.

But, still, the prevailing wisdom is that Cotto, a world champion everywhere from 140 to 160 pounds, has accumulated more experience in fighting and winning these types of events, which leaves Canelo with the advantage in being a full 10 years younger.

So, which one prevails on fight night?

Cotto is no stranger to the big lights of big fights. He's practically an institution in New York City (where all of his fights are events on par with anything you'll find in the Vegas desert), and whether it's wins over Martinez and Shane Mosley or losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, he knows how to handle the pressure of a PPV event. 

Canelo has fought 47 times as a pro, but only one of those (his decisive 2013 loss to Mayweather) could truly be considered an event on par with the magnitude of this fight. And that fight was easily the worst moment of his career, no matter what C.J. Ross and her criminal scorecard said.

The big advantage the cinnamon-haired former champion comes with is that his body hasn't been exposed to the many in-ring wars that have a way of catching up to a fighter, often suddenly and without much lead time. 

Cotto has been beaten up (Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito) and prior to his 2011 rematch with Margarito made it clear to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports that he fought to support his family and was not willing to lay his life on the line.

Canelo is a different breed. He's younger and perhaps hungrier.

Which one wins out? Experience or youth?

We'll find out Saturday.

Puerto Rico vs. Mexico boxing is easily among the greatest rivalries in all of sport.

There's always an added element of excitement and anticipation whenever a pair of elite warriors from the two boxing-crazed nations meet in the ring.

Salvador Sanchez vs. Wilfredo Gomez.

Gomez vs. Carlos Zarate.

Cotto vs. Margarito.

Felix Trinidad vs. Yory Boy Campas.

We could go on and on, but the point is that both Cotto and Canelo will have a lot of hype to live up to and national pride to defend when they walk into the Mandalay Bay Saturday night. 

The fight seems to have a lot going for it when we consider whether or not it can reach the upper echelon among the greatest Puerto Rico vs. Mexico fights of all time.

Both Cotto and Canelo are tough, vicious body punchers who like to fight at close quarters. That is usually code for high-action and high-octane fighting, and it would be a big surprise if these two warriors don't deliver the goods. 

Their styles are built for a war, and you'll have a packed house egging them on whenever the action reaches a fevered pitch. Hopefully, that happens often.

After all, much more is on the line here than just alphabet championships. 

The stakes are high for both men.

Cotto is already considered among the best Puerto Rican fighters of all time, but a win here could quite possibly solidify him at or near the very top of that list. That would be quite the accomplishment, given the high number of quality fighters and champions produced by the island.

He's already a four-division champion (the first in Puerto Rican history) and a future Hall of Fame fighter, but the chance to turn back a younger champion would be the icing on his legacy.

Canelo, obviously, has a ways to go before he can start entering into that type of conversation in Mexico, but he has a realistic shot to walk in the footsteps of his promoter and mentor Oscar De La Hoya as a Mexican fighter who achieved transcendent fame. 

The 25-year-old also carries the burden of being one of the only marquee draws (if not the only) remaining under De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions' banner. He was one of the few fighters to remain with Golden Boy in the aftermath of Richard Schaefer's departure, and that makes him vital to the company's success.

De La Hoya dismissed concerns about placing his young star in a tough fight like this one during an international media conference call last week.

"We are not gambling," De La Hoya said. "This is a great event for all the fans and for all of boxing. I don’t see it as a game. We feel that Canelo and the people deserve the best fights, period."

That's an admirable sentiment, and the right attitude, but this fight definitely poses higher risk for Canelo and Golden Boy than for anyone on the other side of the fence.

Gennady Golovkin isn't fighting Saturday night, but you'll likely hear his name just as many times as the two fighters who will compete in the main event.

Why is that?

Golovkin is widely considered to be the best full middleweight fighter on the planet. 

Cotto and Canelo will compete at a catchweight of 155 pounds (neither has ever fought at the middleweight limit), and the winner will automatically become the No. 1 target for the Kazakh wrecking ball who has amassed 21 straight knockout wins. 

Golovkin took care of his end of the bargain in October. He beat fellow power puncher David Lemieux like he stole something and established himself as the legitimate middleweight champion in the eyes of many observers.

The WBC has mandated that the winner of Cotto vs. Canelo take on Golovkin in his next fight, but it remains to be seen if that will happen. Both fighters (with all due respect) are bigger than any individual title belts and could simply vacate if they don't want the fight.

Cotto has shown zero interest in fighting Golovkin. He's remained relatively consistent on that score, and you can make any judgments or assumptions you wish about his reasons. His team can talk, like Freddie Roach did last week, about drawing power and PPV numbers, but it's obvious his man just isn't feeling that fight.

Canelo has been clear that he does want the fight, just at a catchweight and not at 160 pounds (per FightHype, h/t Yahoo Sports), something GGG's team has rejected many times.

Unfortunately, none of this makes us optimistic.

For many this is the $64,000 (or really much, much more than that) question.

You have two iconic fighters in the sport, with a natural built-in rivalry and national pride on the line.

Seems like an easy sell on PPV, where all the big bucks are made, right?

Not necessarily.

De La Hoya recently sat down with Bloomberg Business (h/t Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook) and made some questionable predictions (along with some funky math) to explain why he thinks Cotto vs. Canelo will deliver the goods on PPV.

He pointed out that Mayweather vs. Pacquiao (not the standard by which you want to measure mainstream success, since it's a once-in-a-lifetime event) sold 4.8 million PPVs at $100 apiece. Since Cotto vs. Canelo is half that price (it's $69.99 in HD, which isn't half) he expects half that number of buys.

That would be good for 2.4 million buys or second-best all-time.

That's probably a bit of a stretch.

Getting into sniffing distance of that number would be a big deal—a huge deal, even.

But setting that as the bar is probably not smart.