By Rene Umanzor

Former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31KOs) is still very interested in facing Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (42-1-1, 30KOs). Canelo plans to return in the month of March after suffered a twelve round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September. Cotto himself was beaten by Mayweather in May 2012, but gave the pound-for-pound king all he could handle. After suffering yet another loss, to Austin Trout in December 2012, Cotto came firing back on October 5th with an easy three round stoppage of Delvin Rodriguez.

Cotto denied that Canelo's recent defeat has made him a less attractive possibility. There are discussions of Cotto possibly facing WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in the summer of next year. Cotto is interested in facing Martinez, but says the fight is far from being a done deal.

"I have always been willing to take on the big names. Canelo is one of them and I hope they can make this fight later on in my career. Canelo has what he has because he won his fights and he worked for it, and you can't look down on any opponent because of his defeats. I know the kind of quality that he has, what kind of fighter that he is. I will continue on my way and if we happen to cross paths later on - I'm ready," Cotto said.

Rene Umanzor covers boxing in Mexico for The Record.