Miguel Cotto keeps middleweight title, TKO's Daniel Geale in fourth round

— -- NEW YORK -- Bring on Canelo Alvarez!

Middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, with a fall megafight with Mexican superstar Alvarez already agreed to before he stepped into the ring, scored two knockdowns and destroyed former unified middleweight titleholder Daniel Geale in the fourth round of a one-sided rout to retain the world title for the first time on Saturday night before a raucous pro-Cotto crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Cotto, who was fighting for the first time since knocking out Sergio Martinez in the 10th round across the river at Madison Square Garden to win the world championship 364 days ago, showed no ill effects of the long layoff. He started fast and blew through the weight-drained Geale with ease. Cotto, who is a small middleweight, insisted that if Geale, who already had trouble making the 160-pound division limit, wanted the fight he would have to accept a contract maximum weight of 157. Geale agreed and struggled mightly to make the weight. Many thought he would not make it and the fight might be canceled, but he weighed exactly 157 at Friday's weigh-in, while Cotto weighed 153.6 -- under the junior middleweight limit.

But with more than 24 hours to rehydrate, Geale stepped on HBO's scale in street clothes when he arrived at Barclays Center for the fight and was a whopping 182 pounds, well above the 175-pound light heavyweight limit.