COTTO VS MARGARITO The Great PR-MX Rivalry Continued..
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If you guys havent read it already its from the new ring mag.
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By William Dettloff
“The Mexican people will never forgive me if I lose. They will lynch me if I lose. I couldn’t return to Mexico.”—Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez before his fight with Puerto Rican star Hector Camacho in September 1992
In the days before his win over Kermit Cintron in April, welterweight contender Antonio Margarito thrilled his Mexican fans when he predicted that after relieving Cintron of his alphabet title, he would do the same to the other Puerto Rican welterweight titlists, namely Miguel Cotto and Carlos Quintana. Of course, on the same night and in the same ring in which Margarito stopped Cintron again, Cotto held up his part of the bargain by, not unexpectedly, blasting out Alfonso Gomez, who, as it happens, is Mexican.
And so continues the long rivalry that exists between Mexican and Puerto Rican prizefighters, in this iteration abetted by welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather, who, by refusing to face either Margarito or Cotto, has compelled them to fight one another. As of press time, the fight was scheduled for July 26.
Not that we’re complaining. Cotto and Margarito (or Margarito and Cotto, depending on your ethnicity) is one hell of a matchup and does not need the Puerto Rican-Mexican thing to help build it up. We’d be happy to watch these two if they were a Dane and an Albanian or an Indian and a Pole. Doesn’t matter to us. A great fight is a great fight and these two have the styles and the temperament to produce a memorable battle. But given the history of this rivalry and the quality of the fights it has produced, you can’t help but to expect even more.
October 28, 1978:Thunderous-punching, undefeated WBC super bantamweight titleholder Wilfredo Gomez, product of the slums of San Juan, defends the title against WBC bantamweight titleholder and Mexican icon Carlos Zarate at a packed Roberto Clemente Coliseum. They are 22 and 26 years old, respectively: in their primes. Their combined record is 75-0-1 (74). Gomez wins the first two rounds, but Zarate takes the third. Gomez drops Zarate in the fourth with a counter left hook and then again with a right. After another knockdown in the fifth, referee Harry Gibbs stops it. The Coliseum explodes.
A look at Margarito’s 36-5 (26) record tells us he is no stranger to this rivalry. Two of his worst nights in the ring came against Puerto Rican stylist Daniel Santos. Their first fight, held in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, in July 2001, was called a no-contest when a headbutt opened Margarito’s eye in the first round and the fight was stopped. In the rematch three years later, in Hato Rey, Margarito was getting outboxed when their heads collided again, producing another fight-ending cut. Santos, ahead on the cards, got the technical decision win.
Cotto’s 32-0 (26) record, in contrast, is largely void of the better Mexican fighters, especially for one so experienced as he. His most notable recent wins have come against Americans—Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Paulie Malignaggi, et al. The only accomplished Mexican on his resume is former WBC lightweight titleholder Cesar Bazan, whom he battered in 11 rounds way back in ’03, as a junior welterweight. Bazan, never a very special fighter to begin with, was already on his way down. In Margarito, Cotto will find a strong, unyielding opponent who, at 30 years old, is at or around his prime.
August 21, 1981: Gomez, still undefeated, rises in weight to challenge the technically brilliant WBC featherweight titleholder Salvador Sanchez of Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico. He is a prohibitive betting favorite. Before the fight, he says he will die in the ring before he lets Sanchez beat him. He almost does. Sanchez drops him in the first round, then, to the shock of the thousands in attendance at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, he breaks Gomez’ cheekbone and batters him all over the ring before Carlos Padilla stops it in the eighth, just as Sanchez is driving Gomez through the ropes.