Flashback: How Floyd Ducked Margarito & Cotto

[Ragnar Lothbrok]

floyd will never live down the fact he fake retired after beating a career 140 pounder ricky hatton at welterweight when welterweight was the hottest & deepest division in all of boxing & then when his best opponent to date came in his attention (pacquiao) scuttling the fight when he accused his opponent of steroid use without any evidence & asking for a test never done before in the history of professional prize fighting.

[madsweeney]

Lets be serious. Margarito and Cotto though good fighters were only good for each other. Cotto could never handle a quick handed fighter, though he showed heart and grit. His stamina was always in question from the running in the Shane Mosley fight and PAC fight. Cotto is a good fighter but his luster now a days is in match making. He will never be any better than he was when he fought Margarito and gassed out in the end with a big lead. No defense and ring generalship to know how to hold, use your feet avoid wide looping punches showed in itself that he wouldnt be able to adjust against Floyd.

Margarito light deemed from the Paul Williams fight and his performance in the first half of the Clottey fight. There is no way Margarito deserved a fight with PAC after cheating or attempting to cheat against Mosley. Banned for life and brought up on charges wouldve been a suitable payment for such transgressions.

Easy to say that after Floyd retired and these guys fought each other. Different story when both were on their seemingly unstoppable winning streaks. You say Cotto and Margo were **** compared to Mayweather...well he fought who instead? So now Zab, Baldo and Mitchell are better than Cotto and Marg?

Looking back we can say Mayweather probably beats all of them (Marg I'm not so sure because he possibly was loading his gloves and that unstoppable pressure is havoc for someone like Mayweather) but at the time, when it mattered, everyone wanted the fights and Floyd chose retirement instead.

[straightleft]

Floyd faked his retirement to avoid Margarito and Cotto just like when he faked his vacation to avoid Pacquiao.

[Luilun]

I would have been pleased if margarito would have used his brick hands to bust floyds face. He would have ruined mayweather cause at that time margarito had great stamina punching at will for 12 rounds floyd would have been swarmed like a pack of angry african bees

[straightleft]

I would have been pleased if margarito would have used his brick hands to bust floyds face. He would have ruined mayweather cause at that time margarito had great stamina punching at will for 12 rounds floyd would have been swarmed like a pack of angry african bees

You right. lmao at Floyd like a wet kitty when approached by Margarito and challenged him.

[check hook]

You guys really should read btw the lines......he's saying ODLH is an "A" class fighter and Margarito is "D" class fighter....he means in terms of the exposure, recognition and most importantly MONEY that ODLH brings.

Floyd had precisely two opportunities to fight Margarito, and one opportunity to fight Cotto. The first Margarito opportunity was just after he had left Top Rank. His options were Margarito for $8million or Baldomir for $8million. Consider at this stage he had only had one fight as a WW. Choosing Margarito would mean facing a very big WW, and also giving Arum a payday at the same time as he was suing him for unpaid earnings. The other option was a fight against Baldomir for lineal claim and as a warm-up for what ultimately proved to be the biggest PPV ever against ODLH at 154. He chose Baldomir as the lead in fight. Given the circumstances, it's not exactly a duck move if you ask me. Personally i don't think he was particularly keen on the idea of facing Margarito, but if Bob had offered 10 or 12 million i'm quite certain it would have been made.

He then fought Oscar, retired, fought Hatton and retired. The second time it was viable for him to fight Margarito again was after the Hatton fight, and this was also the first time it was viable for him to fight Cotto. He took a TWO year lay-off. It's hard to call it a duck considering he didn't fight anybody else in this period.

Floyd was also ducking Baldomir (as silly as it sounds), Hatton and Mosley before he fought them. Floyd will fight a fighter when or if it makes sense on every level, business, legacy and whether (in his mind) he is up to the task mentally and physically at that point in time.

[check hook]

threads like this are silly anyway. There isn't many fighters in history where a certain fan won't say he ducked a certain fighter.

[Barry Halls]

interesting... floyd only "ducks" bob arum fighters apparently.

It was NP getting a fight with the man who *****slapped margarito all across the ring.

[J Dubb II 330]

once again he has only "ducked" Top Rank fighters, Bob Arum who owed him money, who he bought out, a man who was not interested in DLH - Mayweather??? Floyd fought the Lineal Champ, a man the media said he wouldnt fight, reminds me of Hatton and Mosley too. You cant say Floyd ducked Marg and Cotto, without saying that Manny ducked Mosley after he beat Marg and was the Number 1 Welter and number 3 p4p, also without saying he ducked a young, fast, powerful prime champion Berto, to fight a now shot, coming off two disappoiting performances Mosley, aside from the fact he ducked a Marquez rematch until now. So i dont wanna hear this Floyd duck ****, unless your talking that too.

[J Dubb II 330]

Ring Magazine Welter Rankings June 7th, 2006
Champ. Carlos Baldomir (WBC)
1.) Floyd Mayweather Jr (IBF)
2.) Antonio Margarito (WBO)
3.) Zab Judah
4.) Ricky Hatton (WBA)

Miguel Cotto? still a JWW

its a duck to fight the ring champ?