Cotto: I’m not looking ahead

The WBA champion said his focus is on Alfonso Gomez, not Floyd Mayweather.

NEW YORK (AP) — Miguel Cotto insists there won’t be a third fighter in the ring when he defends his WBA welterweight championship Saturday night against Alfonso Gomez.

The unbeaten Cotto says Floyd Mayweather hasn’t been on his mind during preparation for his fourth title defense, nor will the WBC champ be in his thoughts when Cotto takes on Gomez at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Although most boxing fans and many within the sport would like to see Cotto and Mayweather hook up, the Puerto Rican star couldn’t care less.

For now.

“Of course, I know there is a lot of talent in the division,” Cotto said, “and I know I need to have everything prepared for whoever I fight. I’m always training hard and I always bring my best every night into the ring.

“I’m in no hurry [to fight Mayweather]. If I have to be patient to face the guy the people and the press call the best fighter in the world, I can wait.”

A Cotto-Mayweather bout — assuming Cotto beats Gomez — would bring a huge payday to both fighters. It’s not front and center on the boxing agenda, though, because Mayweather wouldn’t want to face Cotto on the East Coast, and Cotto doesn’t want to fight Mayweather in Las Vegas.

So Cotto gets Gomez, and if he runs his record to 32-0, he might then fight the winner of the IBF welterweight title bout on the undercard: champion Kermit Cintron against former champ Antonio Margarito, the only man to beat Cintron.

Cotto says he trains the same regardless of who the opponent is, and was baffled by a comment Gomez made Wednesday that Cotto might have taken some shortcuts heading into this fight.

“I never think of Gomez in training,” he said. “If he heard something, whatever it is, that is his problem, not my problem. We have to know we are prepared enough for anything any opponent can bring into the ring.”