By Mark Vester
Prior to Antonio Margarito's bout with Shane Mosley, there was a June rematch in place with Miguel Cotto. Top Rank's Bob Arum made it clear in several pre-fight interviews that a Mosley victory would not become a factor in breaking apart the set plan for the Margarito-Cotto rematch.
As he made those comments to several media outlets, Arum would have thought it was crazy to even think that Margarito, a 4-1 betting favorite, would get dominated and knocked out by Mosley in nine rounds.
Now the question remains on whether or not Arum should let Margarito fight Cotto in June, or take another fight to see if he fully recovered from the beating he took from Mosley. Cotto has an easy, ready to order opponent on February 21. There won't be a hard return assignment for Cotto when he meets the light-punching Michael Jennings in New York's Madison Square Garden.
At this point, a rematch between Cotto and Mosley is more marketable than a rematch between Margarito and Cotto. But Arum promotes both Cotto and Margarito, so a rematch would guarantee that his company retains the winner. Arum made the mistake of allowing Erik Morales, after he was dominated by Zahir Raheem, to still go forward with a set rematch with Manny Pacquiao. Morales was knocked out by Pacquiao, and then stopped again by Pacquiao, and then lost to David Diaz and then retired.
There is already talk among boxing writers that Margarito may still be feeling some lingering effects from the brutal win over Cotto from last July. Maybe Margarito, although the winner, walked away with more damage than Cotto? Shades of the Bowe-Holyfield trilogy. After the Cotto war and the beating he took on Saturday night, the smarter route might be for Margarito to take an easier fight and then a Cotto or Mosley rematch.
There is no guarantee that Cotto will still want Margarito, at this point. Cotto holds a win over Mosley and last week, Cotto's father said that Margarito was one of the many options they would consider after Jennings. Cotto could go in the direction of a Mosley rematch or the WBC champion Andre Berto.
There is no way to predict how the situation with Margarito's wraps will play out. Prior to fighting Mosley, a member of the California State Athletic Commission found an illegal substance in Margarito's hand wraps. It was a plaster like material that was bagged up and taken away by a member of the commission. Margarito's hands had to be re-wrapped three times. Mosley's trainer Nazim Richardson noticed the strange shape of Margarito's wraps and alerted a commission official.
Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingvester@gmail.com