By Jake Donovan

It will seem like old times at Madison Square Garden this weekend. Top welterweight Miguel Cotto plays the main room on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, appearing in the world’s most famous arena for the second time this year and sixth time overall in his career.

The one-two punch of a Cotto fight and the Puerto Rican Day parade runs for the fourth time in the past five years, with last year serving as the lone interruption in what has otherwise become a time honored boxing tradition.

But with Joshua Clottey standing in the opposite corner (Saturday, HBO,10:30PM ET), another tradition is unearthed – the days where top welterweights would actually face one another.

In recent years, there have been few who have been as involved in that party as Miguel Cotto.

Despite boasting the claim of beting the deepest division in boxing, getting two top welterweights to stand opposite one another for a sanctioned fight has proven to be a daunting task these days. Remove Cotto and Antonio Margarito, and you’re not left with a lot of notable welterweight matchups to have transpired in the past few years.

Fighting top welterweights has been commonplace for Cotto (33-1, 27KO) from the moment he arrived in the division late in 2006.

The Puerto Rican had previously spent his career facing the best of the rest at super lightweight, but never quite challenging the division’s top players, such as Ricky Hatton or Floyd Mayweather. His resume was stellar while on the way up, but seemed to have leveled off once an alphabet title found its way around his waist.

Things took a dramatic turn for the better in December 2006. Six months removed from a hard-fought decision win over Paulie Malignaggi, Cotto debuted at 147. His opponent was Carlos Quintana, who entered the fight at 23-0 and riding on the heels of an emphatic win over then-unbeaten and highly touted prospect Joel Julio.

The all-Boricua matchup was fought on relatively even terms through four rounds before Cotto busted the fight wide open in the fifth. Two knockdowns gave him a commanding lead on all three scorecards, though the judges’ tallies would ultimately prove moot; Quintana never again left his stool, thus officially igniting the next chapter of Cotto’s career.

Cotto was off and running from that point onward. The Quintana fight marked the start of an 11-month period in which he faced four top-10 welters. So stellar was his level of competition that a March 2007 showdown with Oktay Urkal was regarded as a tune-up, despite the transplanted Turk owning a top ten ranking in nearly every respectable publication.

Where Cotto would truly establish himself as the welterweight of choice would be in his level of opposition to follow, specifically while the division’s lineal crown was all but put on ice.

Floyd Mayweather earned the declaration of welterweight king thanks to his title winning effort over Carlos Baldomir in November 2006. Complaints came about of his unwillingness to fight Antonio Margarito, but for the same amount of money, he was able to claim the division’s top prize, to pair up with his win over Zab Judah earlier in the year.

Unfortunately for the rest of the division, the Baldomir fight would be Floyd’s last ever against a fellow welterweight.

Fortunately for the rest of the division, Cotto was willing to pick up the slack.

The transformation from top talent to boxing superstar began with his third Garden party, a June ’07 knockout win over Zab Judah. The arena was sold out for the first time since Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield fought to a controversial draw in their first fight eight years prior.

More than 20,000 Boricuas were on their feet for nearly the entire bout, rocking the house the moment Cotto entered the arena floor, and continuing the celebration after his blood-soaked 11th round knockout of the faded Brooklynite.

The only thing lacking were the pay-per-view numbers, with the fight pulling in a profitable but not particularly spectacular 225,000 buys.

Team Cotto hit the trifecta five months later. While not quite a sell out, the Puerto Rican superstar managed to cram 17,000 into MSG for his November 2007 showdown with Sugar Shane Mosley. It was Cotto’s second straight Garden headliner and second straight fight against a former lineal welterweight champion.

What the night didn’t turn out to be was a fourth straight knockout, in fact anything but. Cotto built a sizeable lead over eight rounds, but struggled down the stretch to hold on for a close but clear decision win over Mosley. The fight was highly entertaining, well-attended and drew in the neighborhood of 350,000 pay-per-view buys.

Not bad for a night originally set aside for a Cotto-Margarito collision.

Those plans were put on hold after Margarito dropped a close decision to Paul Williams four months prior, though Top Rank immediately laid the foundation for Cotto’s next super fight.

Margarito appeared on the Cotto-Mosley undercard, disposing of Golden Johnson in less than a round. The two top welterweights would once again share a card, with Margarito scoring a second knockout win over Kermit Cintron in as many tries less than an hour before Cotto breezed through a rare gimme defense in blowing away Alfonso Gomez in five rounds.

Because the twinbill took place in mid-April, it all but ruined plans for a fourth straight Cotto/MSG/Puerto Rican Day Parade reunion. It was instead decided that a Cotto-Margarito fight was better suited for Las Vegas, giving the Left Coast media a chance to cover the event with the belief that the East Coast scribes would come along for the ride.

They would. So too would the thousands in attendance, and the 440,000 or so fans who would willingly plunk down $50 to see what would go on to serve as perhaps the year’s best fight not involving Israel Vazquez or Rafael Marquez.

That the matchup was pushed back eight months from its original target date turned out to be a blessing in disguise. A month before Cotto and Margarito would meet at the MGM Grand, Floyd Mayweather would relinquish his welterweight crown and retire from the sport (if only for the moment). While Margarito-Cotto wouldn’t fill the vacant lineal title, it was fitting that so soon after a reluctant ruler would exit the sport that the division’s two most willing competitors would meet head on.

The night didn’t turn out very well for Cotto. From a scorecard perspective, he fought on even terms over the course of the first half before falling behind and eventually bowing out in the 11th round of a savagely beautiful war.

Gone was the “0” from his previously pristine record, but there was never a question that he would eventually return to the top, if not stronger than ever. Even in the wake of Margarito enduring a loaded gloves scandal one fight later in a brutal loss to Shane Mosley, Cotto refused to reflect on what could’ve been in Vegas. The night was truly behind him. Whatever Margarito may or may not have done to gain an edge in their own fight would be something the Mexican would have to live with, insisted the Puerto Rican.

Though not against the strongest of opponents, Cotto attempted to drive home that point in what was billed as his comeback fight, a five-round thrashing of hapless contender Michael Jennings this past February. The fight served its purpose – Cotto re-entered the win column and proved that his confidence was still intact.

It’s a good thing, since the division still needs a fighter willing to face other welterweights.

Margarito isn’t available to fill the role – along with his one-sided knockout loss to Mosley earlier this year, a ruling by the California State Athletic Commission leaves him banned from fighting in the US for the remainder of 2009.

Mayweather wasn’t willing to play the part when he WAS the king, and even less willing now that he’s officially on the comeback trail.

Not even Mosley, who never in his life shied away from a challenge, seems interested in facing fellow 147 lb. combatants. Most of the aftermath following his career-resurrecting knockout over Margarito has been spent in pursuit of pound-for-pound and recently crowned junior welterweight king Manny Pacquiao.

Paul Williams and Kermit Cintron have both spent more time at 154 (and above, in Williams’ case) than welterweight in recent months, with never figuring to drop back down to welterweight in the absence of a major payday being thrown their way.

Joshua Clottey has always been willing to take on the best, or even the best of the rest. The biggest – and in fact, only – problem has been his carrying the high risk/low reward label. The Ghana-born, Bronx-based brawler is as tough as they come, but hardly known beyond boxing’s most hardcore circles.

One way or another, that changes this weekend. For better or for worse, Clottey will have one person to thank for whatever additional shine comes out of this Saturday’s main event.

That person is the welterweight division’s most willing contender – Miguel Cotto.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .