By Keith Idec (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)
NEW YORK — Miguel Cotto doesn’t believe Antonio Margarito.
After a press conference Friday to officially announce his June 5 fight against WBA super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium, Cotto dismissed Margarito’s claims of ignorance and innocence made earlier this week in Los Angeles. Mexico’s Margarito said Tuesday during his own press conference that he didn’t know that trainer Javier Capetillo had placed illegal pads into his hand wraps prior to his ninth-round technical knockout loss to Shane Mosley 15 months ago at Staples Center.
“He doesn’t want people to think he’s guilty,” Cotto said to BoxingScene.com. “He knows what Capetillo put on his hands. Every boxer knows what a trainer puts on your hands.”
Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs, 1 NC) will fight for the first time on May 8 since the California State Athletic Commission voted unanimously, 7-0, last February to revoke his license and Capetillo’s license for a year. The former welterweight champion is scheduled to face fellow Mexican Roberto Garcia (28-2, 21 KOs, 1 NC) in a 12-round regional championship match in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
If Margarito beats Garcia, he expects to quickly apply for a license in whichever state he’ll fight next, probably Texas. Cotto doesn’t object to Margarito fighting again, and he didn’t rule out Friday a rematch against Margarito at some point.
A rematch looms as the most intriguing future fight for Cotto and Margarito because Margarito’s hand-wrapping scandal tainted his 11th-round technical knockout victory over Cotto in July 2008. There is no evidence Margarito used those plaster-like wraps exposed by Naazim Richardson, Mosley’s trainer, against Cotto, but Cotto and most boxing observers are understandably skeptical of Margarito’s resume now that he has been caught cheating.
There was nothing debatable about Cotto’s 12th-round TKO loss to Filipino star Manny Pacquiao in his last fight, though.
For Puerto Rico’s Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs), his fight against Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs, 1 NC), which will mark Cotto’s debut at 154 pounds, is about proving he is still capable of competing at an elite level after absorbing a brutal beating against Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs). That defeat marked the third time Cotto was bloodied and battered in 15 months, and we won’t learn until June 5 if the 29-year-old former two-division champion is a similar man to the one who entered the ring against Margarito.
“Everybody’s different,” Foreman said. “Some fighters can rebound from fights like that, some [can’t]. Some just get washed down. I’m not really thinking of what he’s going to look like. I’m preparing for Miguel Cotto at his best.”
Cotto contends he feels fine physically and mentally. He is inspired, too, by the thought of becoming a world champion in a third division.
“People know what Miguel Cotto is made of,” Cotto said. “But being a champion in a third [weight class] in my career, for me, is history for me. With those things on my mind, I’m going to train hard in Tampa to beat Yuri Foreman.”
Cotto is expected to be installed as a favorite to defeat Foreman, who overall has faced a considerably lower level of opposition than Cotto. But the light-punching Foreman, a Brooklyn-based boxer who is studying to become a rabbi, was about a 2-1 underdog entering his fight against another Puerto Rican fighter, Daniel Santos, on the Pacquiao-Cotto undercard Nov. 14 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Foreman completely out-classed Santos (32-4-1, 23 KOs, 1 NC) and dropped the strong southpaw twice en route to a convincing unanimous decision victory that earned him the WBA belt. The affable Foreman, also 29, could’ve pursued less challenging title defenses, but he embraced what on paper appears to be the toughest fight of his eight-year pro career.
“When I won the world title on Nov. 14,” Foreman recalled, “they told me, ‘You know, take a few easy fights, just defend your title and then get something bigger.’ I said, ‘No. To be a world champion, it’s not [about] fighting just easy fights. It’s actually fighting other world champions.’ And Miguel Cotto is another world champion. Defending a world title against Miguel Cotto, it’s a dream coming true. It also gives me an opportunity to showcase my skills.”
He’ll showcase his skills on the grandest stage imaginable, in the first main event at the new Yankee Stadium. Bob Arum, who also promotes Cotto, is eager to see how Foreman performs.
The colorful promoter has taken constant criticism of Foreman’s movement-driven style personally. He believes Foreman’s critics undervalue Foreman’s intelligence and boxing skill, two assets he’ll have to use consistently to defeat the rugged Cotto, despite that Cotto is about four inches shorter than Foreman and moving up in weight.
“It gives [Foreman] the opportunity,” Arum said, “to establish himself as a major fighter.”
Joe Grier, Foreman’s trainer, believes Cotto and his handlers are underestimating Foreman because the Belarus-born boxer has recorded just eight knockouts as a professional.
“I don’t believe for a moment that they were looking for a real hardcore fight for Cotto after what he’s been through,” said Grier, who has developed a close bond with Foreman since becoming his head trainer six years ago. “They think this is a safe fight for him, that they can win in a safe manner. That’s not necessarily so. As you saw in the Santos fight, Yuri’s starting to learn how to do a lot of different things, including punching. We’ve got a few more surprises for them this time, too.”
Cotto surprised virtually everyone, including Murray Wilson, Foreman’s co-manager, by hiring Emanuel Steward as his head trainer. Steward replaced Joe Santiago, who was widely criticized for his corner work during Cotto’s loss to Pacquiao.
Wilson told BoxingScene.com in February that Steward had agreed to work with Foreman during the beginning of his training camp for the Cotto fight. Steward instead decided to train Cotto, without telling Wilson.
Neither fighter seemed bothered by Steward’s switch when asked about it Friday.
“I’m not even thinking about it,” Foreman said. “It’s not in my hands, and it’s never been in my hands. I don’t want to go there, and talk about something that’s non-existent.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.
