"I think this was not an easy negotiation and we kept having to call Sergio with more and more concessions that a champion generally doesn't have to make, and at that time, he was not pleased, you know, and I think that that came out at some of the press conference very clearly, and some of the interviews, and I think if you watch the Face Off with Max Kellerman, you could detect that he was upset about certain things, but I think he's channeled that to his benefit. I think that right now, he's singularly focused on giving Cotto a beating and walking out of Madison Square Garden middleweight champion," stated Lou DiBella, promoter of middleweight king Sergio Martinez, who spoking during a conference call about the upcoming June 7 showdown with Miguel Cotto. According to DiBella, the "silly" and "annoying" demands that Cotto made during negotiations have only motivated Martinez more than ever before.
"There were a lot of concessions that were made to Cotto's perception of his star value and Cotto wanting concessions that a champion doesn't normally give even to a more popular fighter. But Sergio's attitude was he wanted Miguel Cotto. He wanted this fight badly. He believed it was a great opportunity for him. He always wanted to fight in the big room at Madison Square Garden before he retired and to prove himself in that mecca. In order to get the fight, we had to swallow some stuff we didn't want to swallow," DiBella explained. "[The weight limit] is 159 or less and that was one of those that we had to make. In my mind, a catchweight that's a pound off is a bit silly. It's a middleweight title and it should be 160 pounds. But frankly, Sergio's never really weighed in at 160 before, so I don't think it's going to be a big issue for him to weigh in at 159. But, you know, that's one of those concessions that clearly we found annoying during the course of the negotiations."
DiBella added, "You're going to see a really great Sergio Martinez on June 7th...at this point, I don't think he's focused on anything except beating up Miguel Cotto."
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