Canelo Alvarez and Sergio Martinez Await Miguel Cotto's Decision for Potential Bouts in 2014

Former junior middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, looking to bounce back from his defeat at the hands of Floyd "Money" Mayweather, has challenged Puerto Rican boxer Miguel Cotto for a March 8th pay-per-view (PPV) bout, and also has a pending offer from middleweight champion Sergio Martinez for a June match in Argentina.

"I met with Miguel and his team, and we had a very good meeting and I made him an offer in the eight figures, well over $10 million, to fight Canelo in March," said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer on Tuesday to ESPN. "We had a really nice meeting and talked about a bunch of different things. We also talked about the fighters that our companies promote together."

Cotto, who bounced back from a two-fight losing streak by beating Delvin Rodriguez, has become a hot commodity of late, and has been offered an eight-figure deal by Alvarez's camp for a PPV bout on Showtime, while Martinez and Top Rank is offering Cotto a shot at the middleweight title in a HBO PPV event-- though for less of a fight purse than what Alvarez's representatives, Golden Boy Promotions, has offered him. While the Martinez fight may be for less money, the title fight against the Argentinian champion gives Cotto the opportunity to become the first Puerto Rican to win a world title in four weight classes.

Cotto is currently a free agent with no ties to any promoter or network, meaning he can weigh offers from both Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, having had positive business relationships with both camps in the past.

"[Alvarez's] No. 1 priority is to get a deal done with Cotto. So that's why we sat down and made a very aggressive and attractive offer to Miguel for the fight," said Schaefer. "We'd be happy to do it as a one-fight deal with no strings attached, no options, or we're happy to do a longer-range plan that could lead to Miguel facing the other guys we have. It's totally up to Miguel."

Martinez's camp is setting up a back-up plan, possibly against Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Rubio - a World Boxing Council (WBC) mandatory title defense, should a deal with Cotto fail to materialize.

"Cotto must make a decision," said Martinez's adviser Sampson Lewkowicz to BoxingScene.com. "If he wants to make history on the 7th of June in a stadium with 50,000 people, then perfect, but if not, we'll put 50,000 people in Buenos Aires against Rubio."

Schaefer believes that Cotto would be better off financially taking the bigger prize fight against Alvarez over making boxing history against Martinez when it is all said and done.

"[Cotto] realizes that, from a financial point of view, a fight with Canelo is clearly the biggest fight on the table," said Schaefer. "I don't take anything away from Sergio Martinez, who is a great champion. But if you ask anyone what's a bigger fight, a Puerto Rican star against an Argentine star or a Puerto Rican against a Mexican star, we would all agree that Canelo against Cotto is a much bigger fight."