By Lem Satterfield
Arlington, Texas - This past Saturday at Cowboys Stadium, Antonio Margarito took a vicious twelve round beating at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. By the ninth round, Antonio Margarito's eyes were nearly swollen shut. As a result of the punishment, Margarito will be hospitalized at least until Wednesday with a broken right orbital bone that will require surgery to repair on Tuesday, according to the fighter's manager, Sergio Diaz.
Some ringside observers have been very critical of Margarito's corner, and referee, Laurence Cole, for not stopping the fight. Most believe the fight should have been stopped around the eight or ninth round. Cole admits that he was very close to stopping the fight in the tenth and eleventh rounds, but every time he was looking for a reason to stop the fight - Margarito would fire back punches.
"I was very close to stopping the fight. The whole 10th and 11th round, I was close by. Most of the other parts of the fight, I stayed away from them, so that you can see the vision of their entire bodies and you can see their feet, which can often get tangled up" when you have a right hander in Margarito, and a southpaw in Pacquiao, Cole said.
"But in those rounds, I started to sneak in closer so that I could work a lot closer and wait to see how Margarito was responding. I wanted a reason to stop it. I guess that Tony kind of knew that I was getting close and that I wanted to stop it, because Tony kept firing back and he kept fighting. Every time that I got close, and he'd eat two or three punches, he would fire back."
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.