Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito

[tyson]

He hasn't improved his speed. You can't improve speed, your brain response and muscle fibers dictate that. What has happened is he has been fighting Mosley (36 years of age and no longer a fast fighter) and Gomez (do i need to say more?). If anything this has hurt Cotto because he needed a better preparation than Gomez. He is now convinced he can box but he's dead wrong.

You might not be able to change the physical laws in your body, but you might find ways to loosen up and be less tense in the ring.

With less focus on power, the speed will be there.

[NAPO]

He hasn't improved his speed. You can't improve speed, your brain response and muscle fibers dictate that. What has happened is he has been fighting Mosley (36 years of age and no longer a fast fighter) and Gomez (do i need to say more?). If anything this has hurt Cotto because he needed a better preparation than Gomez. He is now convinced he can box but he's dead wrong.

u can't improve speed??? wtf??? hater at its finest.

[DeTomaso]

He hasn't improved his speed. You can't improve speed, your brain response and muscle fibers dictate that. What has happened is he has been fighting Mosley (36 years of age and no longer a fast fighter) and Gomez (do i need to say more?). If anything this has hurt Cotto because he needed a better preparation than Gomez. He is now convinced he can box but he's dead wrong.

Man there's some dumb mfers posting on this board....

[SupremeElectron]

I think Cotto will win this fight by late stoppage. Margarito is methodical and ordinary.

Cotto should be able to counter Margarito's wide-looping punches pretty easily. Kermit Cintron couldn't miss Margarito. He landed almost everytime he threw something. And this is a Kermit Cintron with no jab and terrible balance.

Cotto should run through Margarito...

[Parody]

If I saw a guy with a hammer I wouldn't be sure if he would hurt Margarito with it.

Positives for Margarito:

Margarito is bigger, stronger and tougher. (Better height, reach)
Margarito can hurt Cotto, but I dont think Cotto can hurt Margarito
Margarito throws a lot of punches (over 1000 per fight, and mostly those who cotto is prone too...uppercuts)
Margarito is a good body puncher.
Great Stamina, fights every second of every minute in each round.

Negatives for Margarito

No defense whatsoever (His chin makes up for it as its good)
Has no jab to set up his punches
Somewhat one dimensional


Positives for Cotto:

Better footwork
Good counterpunching skills
Better speed, and can use the ring well.
Very good jab, and throws variety of punches
Mixes it well (head and body punching)
Accurate puncher and best body puncher in the game.

Negatives for Cotto:

Suspect chin
Stamina problems (Witnessed in the Mosley fight, people who can take cotto's punches and fire back at him slows cotto down and margarito throws 1000, sometimes 1500)

Prediction:

Cotto will use his better boxing skills to win some rounds but Tony will eventually get to him throwing uppercuts and right hands nonstop, If Cotto gets lured into a brawl with Margarito its bad news for Cotto, I personally think Cotto will win 7 rounds using his boxing skills, cutting the ring and setting up his accurate punches well as well as attacking the body while I also think the rounds Cotto will win will be close ones, Margarito in my opinion will win 5 clear rounds mostly because of his workrate and cotto slowing down in the later rounds due to being tired (Margarito can slow him down with the amount of punches he throws) however Margarito will look good and make most of his work in the later rounds (9-12) but it wont be enough to win the fight. Margarito can however slow Cotto down and stop him in the later rounds where he usually gets stronger and never gets tired.

Cotto by close UD 7-5

[Clegg]

Two very different fighters, I don't understand why people keep making comparisons between two very distinct fighters. Williams was and is a very unorthodox fighter for anyone. He's so long and lanky and throws hard shots with leverage..

Hard shots? Maybe he's capable of it, but against Margarito he threw hardly anything other than weak looking jabs the entire fight.
I agree that Cotto and Williams are different, but Williams outboxed Margarito and then showed in the Quintana fight that it isn't that hard to get inside his reach and hit him with good shots. I think that Cotto is a better boxer than Williams.

Cotto will be the much smaller man in this fight and I think that will make a difference in the fight. Cotto will have to box his ass off to keep Margarito off of him for 12 rounds.

The 2 biggest questions in that fight will be:

1) can Cotto box Margarito for 12 rounds

2) can Cotto take Margarito's best shot's because he will get hit, there's no doubt about that.

I think so, but Cotto isn't perfect and Margarito is definitley in with a good chance. I'm about 70-30 on this one.

[-Antonio-]

I was watching a few rounds of the Clottey fight the other day, and saw something I forgot had happened. Margarito was cleary wobbled in the early rounds by a counter right hand from Clottey. So he can be hurt.

[KESSLER]

He hasn't improved his speed. You can't improve speed, your brain response and muscle fibers dictate that. What has happened is he has been fighting Mosley (36 years of age and no longer a fast fighter) and Gomez (do i need to say more?). If anything this has hurt Cotto because he needed a better preparation than Gomez. He is now convinced he can box but he's dead wrong.

Hahaha!!!

[KESSLER]

Bump

[macman]

Margarito has been hurt early a couple of times in fights, even down once if I remember correctly.

However, it hasn't slowed him down, & once he settles in he's almost impossible to hurt.
Maybe if Cotto lands a really vicious body shot to the ribs - cracked ribs are cracked ribs no matter how tough you are - but think that is Cotto's only chance of really hurting Margarito badly after the first round & a half, or even backing him off for any length of time.

As for a fight prediction, my head says Cotto should edge it in a tough fight - he's got the edges in handspeed, can box reasonably well on the move, & has a very solid defence.

However, I have a feeling that Margarito may well wear Cotto down, & stop him in the late rounds, after being behind on points in the mid-rounds.

Should be a hell of a fight either way...