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By William Dettloff
Let’s count ourselves lucky that if Floyd Mayweather seems more interested these days in play-fighting than in facing his most serious challengers, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are not similarly inclined. As they demonstrated (and not for the first time) on Saturday night in Atlantic City, they are fighters all the way through.
You could make the case that Cotto proved little by bludgeoning poor, outgunned Alfonso Gomez, but he handled him exactly as he was supposed to and thus exhibited the vast gulf that exists between him and a great number of other welterweights. Moreover, no upper-tier fighter doing business today has faced solid competition more consistently than has Cotto. To the extent that Gomez was an easy payday, Cotto earned it in advance.
Margarito’s mugging of Kermit Cintron was no less impressive for its similar inevitability. That he walked through any number of booming right hands to chop Cintron down is testament to his will and to his unshakable confidence in his own toughness.
That taking punches is not Cintron’s strong suit does not diminish his standing as a prodigious puncher whose right hand has pulverized lesser welterweights, but never once discouraged Margarito’s forward progress.
It seems unfair that these two prime, fearless prizefighters should now be required to further prove themselves by fighting one another, while Mayweather plays footsies with professional wrestlers and awaits the big money-grab that is his rematch with an undeserving, 35-year-old Oscar De La Hoya.
Cotto was perfectly deserving of a shot at Mayweather (maybe a little too perfectly) even before his win over Shane Mosley last November. And certainly Margarito’s performance against Cintron qualifies him as well. A fight between them eliminates a worthy challenger.
Of course, Mayweather hasn’t said a word about meeting the winner of Cotto-Margarito, which is scheduled now for July 26. And we shouldn’t complain that Cotto and Margarito are facing off—there’s not a better fight to be made in boxing.
But in a fairer world, they wouldn’t have to face one another in order to corner Mayweather into a fight.
In a fairer world, he’d have fought them already.
Let’s count ourselves lucky that if Floyd Mayweather seems more interested these days in play-fighting than in facing his most serious challengers, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are not similarly inclined. As they demonstrated (and not for the first time) on Saturday night in Atlantic City, they are fighters all the way through.
You could make the case that Cotto proved little by bludgeoning poor, outgunned Alfonso Gomez, but he handled him exactly as he was supposed to and thus exhibited the vast gulf that exists between him and a great number of other welterweights. Moreover, no upper-tier fighter doing business today has faced solid competition more consistently than has Cotto. To the extent that Gomez was an easy payday, Cotto earned it in advance.
Margarito’s mugging of Kermit Cintron was no less impressive for its similar inevitability. That he walked through any number of booming right hands to chop Cintron down is testament to his will and to his unshakable confidence in his own toughness.
That taking punches is not Cintron’s strong suit does not diminish his standing as a prodigious puncher whose right hand has pulverized lesser welterweights, but never once discouraged Margarito’s forward progress.
It seems unfair that these two prime, fearless prizefighters should now be required to further prove themselves by fighting one another, while Mayweather plays footsies with professional wrestlers and awaits the big money-grab that is his rematch with an undeserving, 35-year-old Oscar De La Hoya.
Cotto was perfectly deserving of a shot at Mayweather (maybe a little too perfectly) even before his win over Shane Mosley last November. And certainly Margarito’s performance against Cintron qualifies him as well. A fight between them eliminates a worthy challenger.
Of course, Mayweather hasn’t said a word about meeting the winner of Cotto-Margarito, which is scheduled now for July 26. And we shouldn’t complain that Cotto and Margarito are facing off—there’s not a better fight to be made in boxing.
But in a fairer world, they wouldn’t have to face one another in order to corner Mayweather into a fight.
In a fairer world, he’d have fought them already.
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