By Chris Robinson

It was almost a year ago to the day that Sampson Lewkowicz, advisor to lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, spoke about the possibility of his fighter facing off with junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto.

Lewkowicz had met up with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in his Las Vegas offices and seemed very optimistic, giving hints that the fight had a chance of pushing through in the first quarter of 2011, but that wasn’t the case. Martinez would go on to defeat Ukranian Sergiy Dzinziruk at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut on March 12th while Cotto would register a 12th round knockout over crude Nicaraguan Ricardo Mayorga on the same night in Las Vegas.

Lewkowicz wasn’t able to witness Cotto’s impressive display against Antonio Margarito last night, as the Puerto Rican carved up his heated rival for a 10th round TKO inside of Madison Square Garden after busting up the Tijuana pug’s right eye in their rematch. Lewkowicz instead was present in Anaheim, California as his fighter Anselmo ‘Chemito’ Moreno produced a strong showing in defending his WBA 'Super' bantamweight belt against former

It seemed obvious from his tone that Lewkowicz wasn’t eyeing Cotto nearly as much as a potential foe for Martinez, noting the following.

“There’s rumor that he plans to leave Top Rank, so maybe it could happen,” Lewkowicz said of Cotto.

But the aforementioned rumors seemed to dampen mightily after Cotto was seen embracing Arum at the post-fight press conference following his victory, while also stating his loyalty to his promoter of over ten years.

It does seem like WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. could enter the fray as Cotto’s next opponent. Chavez is coming off of a 5th round stoppage over Peter Manfredo a few weekends back, one of his most impressive performances to date, but Lewkowicz seems to be disinterested in such a scenario.

The WBC belt that Chavez holds is the same one that was inexplicably stripped from Martinez earlier this year and all that matters to Lewkowicz is either seeing Chavez face Martinez next or to get stripped of his title.

“I could care less. The only thing is that Junior has to give up the title to Martinez. The last word of [WBC President] Don Jose Sulaiman was ‘Either you fight Martinez or you get stripped’,” he continued.

Lewkowicz added that Martinez is presently in Spain and that he will be arriving in Las Vegas on December 14th for his participation in the upcoming 49th annual WBC convention at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

[Reader's note: For images from the recent Cotto-Margarito rematch please visit ]

Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at Trimond@aol.com and