By Steve Kim
It was a good half-hour before newly minted WBA welterweight king Antonio Margarito would leave the ring inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night after his career-defining victory over Miguel Cotto. After conducting his interviews for the various television outlets that had covered the event, he seemed to be doing boxing's version of a victory lap.
As a large throng of Mexican partisans stuck around, Margarito would acknowledge the fans on each side of the ring, receiving a loud ovation from his admirers. As he finally stepped down from the ring, despite the pitched battle he had just participated in, he would stop and pose for pictures with his adoring fans as he headed towards his dressing room. As flash bulbs popped and the fans jostled for position near the railing, Margarito, whose face wore the battle scars of a punishing night, smiled through it all. He was milking this for all it was worth.
The attention and admiration that was once showered on men like Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales is now reserved for him. No, there may never be another Julio Cesar Chavez - the Babe Ruth of Mexican legends, who was in attendance and watching a man who had once idolized him as a boy - but in walking down the Puerto Rican star, he became a bit of an icon himself.
He's become a player. It's been a long winding road, and he firmly believed he should've gotten there sooner, but he's here now. Fifteen years after turning professional, the world has now been officially introduced to 'The Tijuana Tornado'. And he's not going anywhere for awhile. For as long as his chin and balls allow, he will be among the toughest, roughest men in the sport.
They say life is about the choices you make, that your destiny isn't just about chance or dumb luck. On this night, Margarito made a simple choice - he would not be denied. The courageous Cotto would've beaten any other welterweight on the planet with the performance he put on this past Saturday night - just not the guy he was in with on this particular day. While Cotto won the first half of the fight with his superior boxing skills and fancy footwork, the steady pressure of the Mexican would begin to wear on him by the middle rounds. Cotto was winning many of the early battles, but clearly losing the war. The fight was reminiscent of Chavez's legendary encounter against Meldrick Taylor. While one guy was winning the boxing match, the other guy was laying the groundwork to win the fight.
“At about the sixth round I felt my pressure and my punches were doing some damage to Cotto," Margarito would say afterwards.
And as the fight headed towards the championship rounds, you knew which guy was surging and which guy was being submerged under the steady rain of leather coming his way. Cotto's boxing and counterpunching, which was so effective in the early stages, slowly became more and more of a full blown retreat, and even his late combinations seemed to be a form of defensive punching, meant to just keep Margarito off him, while the Mexican was able to continually move forward and punch with superior leverage. What he lacks in technique at times, Margarito more than makes up for in sheer volume. And the shots that once missed their mark or were deflected by Cotto's guard became more and more accurate as Cotto tired in the late innings.
Then there is his chin, which seems to be coated in kevlar. How sturdy is his chin? Chuck Norris would break his hand if he hit Margarito on the whiskers.
As Cotto bounced left hooks and right crosses off Margarito, only to have him smile and shrug his shoulders and resume his constant pursuit of him, a look of defeated resignation came across his face. He simply could not keep Margarito off him consistently. And with that he would spend large portions of the fight in reverse gear and on the ropes, till finally his transmission gave out in the 11th, and as he collapsed to the canvas for a second time, his corner would mercifully call it a day.
But even in defeat, Cotto must be given credit. Once again he represented himself with class and dignity in giving boxing another night it can be proud of. And beyond that, he did what many others simply refused to do - face Margarito - when he didn't have to. Many others have found a million reasons to find shelter from this oncoming tornado, but Cotto agreed to move this fight to the west coast near Margarito's base.
But this night was about a fighter who has finally become a star. After years of frustration and being overlooked and ignored, he's now an A-lister. No longer just a supporting player in boxing, he'll be the guy on the marquee headlining. But it was only a year ago, last July, after his disappointing loss to Paul Williams for his WBO title, that he was branded an 'internet creation' by one HBO announcer, and in the immediate aftermath of that fight he was taken off the graphic of elite welterweights on that broadcast. Expunged from the books like an enemy of Stalin. Even in this promotion, while Top Rank had the services of both men, Cotto was their man. They had simply invested too much in him for it to be otherwise. Margarito, to some in the Top Rank brass, was the perfect foil to continue to build the Cotto brand. He was Mexican, promoted in-house and thought to be too limited and crude to defeat him.