By Rick Reeno
Miguel Cotto showed why he is the best young fighter in the game tonight as he was spectacular in stopping undefeated Kelson Pinto in 6 rounds. This was billed as a grudge match as Cotto was defeated twice by Pinto in the amatuers.
Cotto came out strong in the first round with hard power shots. Pinto was rocked and dropped in the second round. Pinto was wobbled bad once again in the third round, Pinto could not escape the short left hook of Miguel Cotto. Pinto started boxing more in the fourth but was wobbled once again. Pinto was having a great round five but was caught with a huge shot and dropped for the second time in the fight.
Cotto came out with big shots in the sixth round as Pinto was still stunned from the prior round and he just drilled Pinto with power shots. Pinto went down again and was very hurt. The Pinto corner came in the ring to stop the fight so Pinto would not suffer further damage.
In a fight which didnt have any high expectations for drama, it turned into a very good brawl. Daniel Santos defeats Antonio Margarito by way of a 9 round split decision. The scores were 86-85 for Santos, 86-85 Margarito and 87-84 Santos.
The first round started with Santos slugging instead of boxing as everyone expected. Santos came into the ring weight 170 pounds and showed the weight difference as he rocked Margarito bad in the first round with a left cross. Margarito adjusted well in the second round and came back with a heavy amount of body and head damage.
The third round saw Santos come back midway with great combos to back Margarito up. Santos got rocked by a right hand from Margarito but was able to get out of trouble when the two men battled against the ropes.
Clash of heads in the 6th round saw a bad cut above the eye of Margarito and it was bleeding very bad. Santos targeted the eye for the remainder of the round and blasted Antonio with combos. Margarito came back to dominate the 7th and 8th rounds with a heavy amount of body damage. The 9th round was pretty even between both men and could of been the deciding factor of the winner in this close bout. As the 10th round started, the dcotor took another look at the deep cut above the eye of Margarito and stopped the fight. teh fight went to the cards and only the previous nine rounds were scored.