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By 2008 Miguel Cotto was PR boxing's biggest star and possibly the leading fighter at 147lb, Antonio Margarito was the Mexican bad man, hard hitting and uncompromising. Cotto was given the star treatment whereas Margarito had to come up the hard way, gathering losses as he went. This was a fight between two very different men and both had to prove something.
Margarito wanted to show everyone he was more than just a hard man.
Cotto wanted to show everyone he was worthy of his p4p stature and ranking.
The fight itself was as good as it gets the early rounds belonged squarely to Cotto, who boxed, moved and out landed Margarito but for everyone 3 punches Margarito took, he would land one...and they hurt.
As the fight swung toward the 5th and 6th rounds, it was obvious that Cotto's early points lead my not mean much, Margarito was starting to land the more telling punches. It had shades of Taylor v Chavez, where Chavez battered Taylor in the championship rounds. I didn't want to see that, I kept thinking that Cotto would mount a come back but by the 11th it was obvious that the scorecards would most likely be even and that Cotto may not take much more.
Margarito finished it in the 11th, pounding Cotto on the ropes and the great Puerto Rican took a knee.
Sadly, the fight is no longer remembered for the great contest it was, now all people talk about is how Cotto quit and how that somehow defines an entire nation. Margarito's detractors point to the hearsay that he may have been using illegal substances in his gloves, although there has never been any evidence of that.
I just wish more people would talk about this on the merit of the two fighters, the skill, guts and damn will that both men showed, rather than the negatives. In welterweight history this should be up there with Leonard/Hearns.
Margarito wanted to show everyone he was more than just a hard man.
Cotto wanted to show everyone he was worthy of his p4p stature and ranking.
The fight itself was as good as it gets the early rounds belonged squarely to Cotto, who boxed, moved and out landed Margarito but for everyone 3 punches Margarito took, he would land one...and they hurt.
As the fight swung toward the 5th and 6th rounds, it was obvious that Cotto's early points lead my not mean much, Margarito was starting to land the more telling punches. It had shades of Taylor v Chavez, where Chavez battered Taylor in the championship rounds. I didn't want to see that, I kept thinking that Cotto would mount a come back but by the 11th it was obvious that the scorecards would most likely be even and that Cotto may not take much more.
Margarito finished it in the 11th, pounding Cotto on the ropes and the great Puerto Rican took a knee.
Sadly, the fight is no longer remembered for the great contest it was, now all people talk about is how Cotto quit and how that somehow defines an entire nation. Margarito's detractors point to the hearsay that he may have been using illegal substances in his gloves, although there has never been any evidence of that.
I just wish more people would talk about this on the merit of the two fighters, the skill, guts and damn will that both men showed, rather than the negatives. In welterweight history this should be up there with Leonard/Hearns.
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