World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman announced that Miguel Cotto is no longer their middleweight world champion.

Sulaiman released a statement just a few days before the supposed title defense of the Puerto Rican warrior against Mexican rising star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on Nov. 21 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Boxing Scene reported.

Part of the official statement featured on Boxing News reads: "The WBC hereby announces that effective immediately has withdrawn recognition of Miguel Cotto as WBC World Middleweight Champion."

The organization will also declare "Canelo" as their new champion for the said division if he wins over Cotto, per the council's statement.

The boxing council further explained what moved them to this decision. The sanctioning body stated that Team Cotto was "not willing to abide by the governing WBC Rules & Regulations, and the specific conditions the WBC established to sanction the fight."

Did Cotto violate any rule?

Dan Rafael of ESPN sheds some light on the situation via a post on Twitter. Citing a source, Rafael noted that Cotto has failed to give the WBC the required sanctioning fees for the fight.

Oscar De La Hoya, head of Golden Boy Promotions, immediately called this act on Cotto as a "disgrace," another report from Boxing Scene noted.

A recent article of the news outlet informed Cotto's side on the matter. Cotto revealed that the WBC was asking a total of $1.1 million from his camp -- $300,000 as sanctioning fee and $800,000 as a step-aside fee for the mandatory challenger, Gennady Golovkin.

"Ask Oscar to give $1.1 million dollars to the WBC and then wait for an answer [from him]. It was $1.1 million dollars. Is that fair? No, it's not," Cotto said.

Cotto shared that he talked to Sulaiman and was even willing to pay $125,000 more, which for him is a "reasonable" amount. However, the WBC president did not regard it as something "reasonable."

"He said 'no' and he said 'you are not going to be our champion anymore,'" Cotto added.

Yet, even with this big controversy Cotto is facing right now, the seasoned boxer is more motivated to score a victory against "Canelo."

"I don't need a title. This fight sells by itself and everybody knows what they can expect from Saul and...from Miguel...I know that I have everything to beat Canelo," Cotto said.

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