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by Cliff Rold - The anticipation is so fevered amongst the hardcore faithful that it has to be asked: would a good fight be good enough? If WBA Welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KO) and former WBO and IBF titlist Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KO) just went out and fought a hard twelve rounds, if it turns out to be slightly less than a classic, would it be okay?
It’s the burden of the hyperbole and rhetoric flying around en route to the opening bell on Saturday night. When Cotto-Margarito stops being something to look forward to, removes itself from abstraction and unfolds as graphic reality, the hope for a classic will loom over every punch thrown. The first time someone’s head is jerked to the side by a smashing hook, a roar will come for the crowd asking “Is this it? Does the Fight of the Year start now?”
There are a small handful of fights that ever garner this sort of buzz based solely on the action potential. Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor had it; so did the recent Israel Vasquez-Rafael-Marquez series. They were fights that featured elite, not quite mega-stars whose reputations were formed in the ring and not the larger social conversations that often drag along behind the brightest marquee battles. [details]
It’s the burden of the hyperbole and rhetoric flying around en route to the opening bell on Saturday night. When Cotto-Margarito stops being something to look forward to, removes itself from abstraction and unfolds as graphic reality, the hope for a classic will loom over every punch thrown. The first time someone’s head is jerked to the side by a smashing hook, a roar will come for the crowd asking “Is this it? Does the Fight of the Year start now?”
There are a small handful of fights that ever garner this sort of buzz based solely on the action potential. Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor had it; so did the recent Israel Vasquez-Rafael-Marquez series. They were fights that featured elite, not quite mega-stars whose reputations were formed in the ring and not the larger social conversations that often drag along behind the brightest marquee battles. [details]
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