Miguel Cotto is MORE or as Shot as Antonio Margarito!

[ßringer]

I don't know why but people are obsessed with retiring and dismissing people whenever they fall short. Even in situations when a poor performance is clearly the result of style.

You should stop posting, Drew. Honestly, I think your career as a BS poster has been over since 2010.

You're shot to shit, buddy.

[DrewWoodside]

You should stop posting, Drew. Honestly, I think your career as a BS poster has been over since 2010.

You're shot to shit, buddy.

I'm an NSB journeyman, prime Drew would have included pics and more pwns in this thread!

[NEETzsche]

cotto is more mentally damaged, marg more physically.

[boxing2106]

They are not shot they are just past prime

[DrewWoodside]

cotto is more mentally damaged, marg more physically.

Marg is mentally still phenomenal. Cotto on the other hand does have his own physical damage as well.

[DrewWoodside]

(Warning: Thinking Intensive)

A lot of the discussion on who will win Saturday night hinges on who boxing fans think is more "shot." As always, in boxing you are only as good as your last fight.. So it makes a lot of sense that the boxing public is giving Cotto an edge in terms of who has more left in the tank. However, a lot of this is based on Margarito's last fight, a beating at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. Also, his fight before that against Roberto Garcia, which fans considered to be just an okay performance. However, note that it has been confirmed by Team Margarito that Margarito was making a conscious effort to put rounds under his belt after an extended period of inactivity.

So, this brings us to Cotto. 2-0 in his last two fights, both won by convincing stoppage. But, consider the opposition. A relatively unproven Yuri Foreman who was fighting without one of his legs.. And was consequently knocked out again in his very next fight, this time by one Pawel Wolak. Also, the Wolak stoppage ocurred even sooner and when Foreman was at full health. The next fight was against what remains of consumate under achiever Ricardo Mayorga.

So supposing Antonio Margarito's last two fights were against Foreman and Mayorga and he won them both by equally convincing stoppages. And imagine everyone's last memory of Cotto was his knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao. Is it possible to say that perhaps the boxing public would be viewing Cotto as the more "shot" fighter and NOT Margarito? Basing such an important determination(who's more shot) on such subjective information leads to the type of smoke in mirrors that results in upsets.

I think at the very least it would be incredibly more reasonable to assume both men are equally "shot" or that the variable in this situation was negligible. Which would only bring us right back to where both men were in 2008 when they last met. Wraps aside of course since it's impossible to know for sure exactly the impact of what was in Margarito's gloves(or if there was anything illegal in them or not, although I think there was).

I'm a big Cotto fan, and this thread's intention is simply to point out Margarito may not be as shot(at least in relation to Cotto's shotness) as many think he is. Thoughts, disagreements? Please discuss!

To further support my point about a fighter's current value being overly attached to his last performance. I was looking at the Cotto Foreman Highlights and noticed that at the beginning of the fight. Kellerman was speaking about Cotto the same way a lot of people are currently speaking about Margarito.

People forget this, but the public also questioned whether Cotto still had a place in the sport in terms of what was left in him after he lost to Pacquiao as well. It's simply the result of the overwhelming way Pacquiao dismantles his opponents and wins.

"The boxing world is curious does Miguel Cotto still want to fight? Does he still really want to fight?"

[TintaBoricua]

To further support my point about a fighter's current value being overly attached to his last performance. I was looking at the Cotto Foreman Highlights and noticed that at the beginning of the fight. Kellerman was speaking about Cotto the same way a lot of people are currently speaking about Margarito.

People forget this, but the public also questioned whether Cotto still had a place in the sport in terms of what was left in him after he lost to Pacquiao as well. It's simply the result of the overwhelming way Pacquiao dismantles his opponents and wins.

"The boxing world is curious does Miguel Cotto still want to fight? Does he still really want to fight?"

You bring up good points but honestly, if Cotto was able to ALMOST go the distance against a faster, technically better, with as much stamina as Margarito, dynamic combination punching southpaw named Manny Pacquiao...why not against Margarito?

Add to that, he's fighting in New York and, as I said in a prediction thread I opened, if Margarito is fighting evenly with him, the close rounds will favor Cotto (not because he's the champion, but because he's in MSG). Cotto can throw a seven-punch combination, have only two of them land and the crowd will go nuts influencing judges. It shouldn't be like that but that's how it is.

Overall, I still think Margarito has the style to beat Cotto, but with so many hurdles he has to overcome (never MIND the eye factor)...I think Cotto should clearly be the favorite and rightfully so. If Margarito can do a repeat of the first fight in MADISON SQUARE GARDEN (stopping Cotto)...I'm wearing an Antonio Margarito avatar with red letters stamped on the pic saying "CERTIFIED BAD-ASS". And you can quote me on that or bump the topic after the fight...

TintaBoricua loves boxingscene!

[DrewWoodside]

You bring up good points but honestly, if Cotto was able to ALMOST go the distance against a faster, technically better, with as much stamina as Margarito, dynamic combination punching southpaw named Manny Pacquiao...why not against Margarito?

Add to that, he's fighting in New York and, as I said in a prediction thread I opened, if Margarito is fighting evenly with him, the close rounds will favor Cotto (not because he's the champion, but because he's in MSG). Cotto can throw a seven-punch combination, have only two of them land and the crowd will go nuts influencing judges. It shouldn't be like that but that's how it is.

Overall, I still think Margarito has the style to beat Cotto, but with so many hurdles he has to overcome (never MIND the eye factor)...I think Cotto should clearly be the favorite and rightfully so. If Margarito can do a repeat of the first fight in MADISON SQUARE GARDEN (stopping Cotto)...I'm wearing an Antonio Margarito avatar with red letters stamped on the pic saying "CERTIFIED BAD-ASS". And you can quote me on that or bump the topic after the fight...

TintaBoricua loves boxingscene!

There is plenty of evidence to support your position as well. I do think though that Pacquiao practically had Cotto ready to go around 4. A couple more punches at the right moment and it woudl have been game over. However Cotto was hurt enough that he got on his bike(and for good reason.)

The thing is, as we've seen Pacquiao is a lot less effective at hurting opponents when they move away from him.. He really does just follow them instead of cutting off the ring. As evidenced by Mosley.. And we wouldn't say that it was impressive that Mosley survived Pacquiao..

I think we'll get a lot of answers on Saturday that we may not be expecting, myself included. But. I think Cotto needs to box to win this fight. Margarito is still a lot bigger than Cotto and Imo tough as nails. I think Cotto won't be able to resist getting into exchanges with Margarito. I think Cotto will be back peddaling(you know the back peddaling I'm talking about, not moving side to side and putting in work) by the 6th round if not sooner. Cotto's punch resistance is very low at this stage. I think Cotto is going to fade hard if he allows himself to trade with Margarito...

If you're Cotto, how will you resist the following:

- An electric atmosphere building from a STACKED undercard of action fights

- A sold out arena of mostly 20,000 Puerto Ricans all screaming for Margarito's head on a platter

- The fact that Margarito is extremely easy to hit at all times

- The likeliehood that Margarito will be talking sh** and taunting Cotto in the ring..

Personally I think Cotto is too proud not to respond to the above factors and allow this to become a shootout or even a fight where he stands in front of Margarito with any regularity. And unfortunately, I think obliging Margarito and exchanging with him would result in Cotto running out of steam short of the full 12.