Cotto vs. Margarito…Food For Thought

By Igor Frank
Photo: Bret "The Threat" Newton
 

As a press tour to announce an epic battle between Miguel  Cotto ( 32-0,26Kos) and Antonio Margarito ( 36-5, 26Kos) is nearing an end and fighters are about to embark on their respective training camps, fans are left in anticipation to discuss the qualities of combatants and to predict the outcome of the fight.

“La Batalia “is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 26^th, 2008 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Arena. Tickets went on sale on Thursday, May 22^nd and are priced reasonably for this kind of a fight; from $700.00 ringside seats to $100.00 tickets upstairs, they can be purchased at the MGM Grand box office or Ticketmaster.

If you can not afford a trip to Las Vegas, which I highly recommend, the battle will be televised live on HBO Pay Per View.

During Los Angeles press conference, Bob Arum stated that he was very excited to promote “A Real Fight” making a sarcastic reference about De La Hoya and Mayweather business venture. Bob believes in this fight so much, that he decided to gamble himself and bring it to Las Vegas as opposed to having it in New York, where Cotto has proven to sell out Madison Square Garden Arena in his match ups with Mosley and Judah. Why take a chance? Bob believes that the magnitude of this event warrants the move to Las Vegas and is banking on fierce rivalry between Mexican and Puerto Rican champions and a fact that Cotto is ready to crossover from east coast attraction to a superstar status.  Referring to the magnitude of the event, Arum compared this battle to Leonard vs. Hagler, which in fact has more parallels than even Bob realized.

Miguel Angel Cotto burst on a professional boxing scene as a decorated well thought after amateur, just as Leonard did, and almost immediately had a following. Cotto is sort of like a boxing royalty, like Kobe Bryant in NBA, comes from a boxing family and was always groomed to become a champion. Cotto had an extensive amateur career on the international level. He won Pan-American Championship in 1997 as a Lightweight in Colombia; won a second place in Junior World Championships in1998 in Argentina and lost to Abdulaev who eventually won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Sydney Australia in 2000. By the way, Cotto avenged his loss to Abdulaev in a spectacular fashion in 2005 as a professional.

Antonio Margarito had limited amateur experience, as did Hagler, and with a record of 18-3, turned professional at the tender age of fifteen, where he had to learn on the job and earn his respect, much like Hagler did, the hard way through fighting. Tony started his professional career in January of 1994 and fought his first ten fights in Mexico. He lost three out of his  first twelve pro fights, where he was still learning on the job and developing as a fighter, but since October of 1996 he has amassed an impressive record of twenty four wins, one very controversial on cuts loss to Santos in Puerto Rico and one very closely contested loss to Williams on points, and earned himself a reputation of the most avoided man in boxing.

Antonio’s first challenge for WBO welterweight title against Daniel Santos in Puerto Rico ended up as a no contest due to an accidental head  butt that caused a bad cut on Margaritos right eye and forced the doctor to  stop the fight in the first round.

Miguel Cotto started his professional career in February of 2001 and while remaining undefeated he knocked out nine out his first twelve opponents. He was signed by Top Rank and on a fast track to a title. Miguel won his WBO light welterweight title in September of 2004 on a first try, after it was vacated by Zab Judah who moved up to welterweight, in a spectacular fashion by knocking down Kelson Pinto three times on a way to registering a TKO win in the 6^th round.

Antonio Margarito has won a vacant WBO welterweight title on the second try on March of 2002, after he forced Antonio Diaz’s corner to throw in a towel in the tenth stanza. Margarito defended his title three times by dominating highly regarded Danny Perez and knocking out once beaten ex-champ Andrew Lewis and unbeaten prospect Hercules Kyvelos. He then decided to go up in weight and challenge Daniel Santos again for WBO light middleweight title. This time the fight was stopped in the 10^th round due to a bad cut on Margaritos right eye caused by a head butt, as Antonio was picking up steam and was beginning to control the action. Judges awarded Santos a split decision, but many fans and media thought Margarito deserved the victory.

Cotto defended his WBO light welterweight title six times against high caliber of opposition and was impressive every time; he knocked out veterans Randall Bailey and DeMarcus Corley and then avenged his amateur loss with a spectacular 9^th round TKO victory over rugged Mohamed Abdulaev. In September of 2005 Cotto was involved in one of the most exciting fights I have ever seen with late substitute, unbeaten Colombian, knock out artist Ricardo Torres. Cotto was wobbled in round one, knocked down in round two and hurt really bad in round five and was able to overcome his difficulties and in turn knocked down his opponent in rounds one, four and six and finish Torres with a right hand in the 7^th. Questions about Cotto's chin were raised, but it was blamed on Miguel’s extra difficulty to make weight.

Cotto defended his light welterweight title for the last time in Madison Square Garden in June of 2006 against then undefeated speedster Paul Malignaggi. It was an impressive victory in which Cotto hurt and bruised his opponent and also demonstrated his ability to box and cut off the ring with a very fast and difficult foe.

Margarito went back down to welterweight to defend his title and scored two impressive knock outs over Sebastian Lujan and then undefeated heavy handed sensation Kermit Cintron. He then destroyed Manuel Gomez in the first round and after a slow start decisioned highly regarded Joshua Clottey in a fight where Margarito threw a record amount of punches. Even though Margarito has been boxing since he was five years old and he is legendary in Southern California boxing gym circles for his gym wars, critics never gave him a break. Because of his hard charging come forward and throw punches in bunches, ready to take a few to throw mine style and wide looping shots , many scribes have called him ordinary and that he only knows one way to fight .Yes, it is true, Margarito  always fights coming forward, but that is because he knows his identity in the ring, he is a fighter and he cherishes  a  combat and when you see him get hit with a good shot  he would smile as if to say” good, now we can start the action”. Antonio knows his way around the ring and he has underrated boxing skills, which include a hard stinging jab, that he does not always use and ability to cut off the ring on his opponent. He throws a lot of punches from different angles , which makes it difficult to defend against, but the thing that really impressed me is his dedication to the sport, case in point, he decided to put off having children to be able to fully concentrate on his career. He was supposed to fight Cotto last year, but had to give up his WBO belt to do it, opted instead to defend his title against undefeated contender Paul Williams. Antonio lost his belt and a very exciting fight on points. He lost the first six rounds because of his slow start and Williams throwing a hundred punches a round and even though he came on strong late and had Paul in trouble in the eleventh frame, he could not overcome the deficit. It seemed like a very bad business decision at that time.

Cotto, meanwhile, moved up to welterweight and destroyed a fellow Puerto Rican, then undefeated, Carlos Quintana for the vacant WBA title in December of 2006.

He looked stronger and had better balance without having to starve himself to make weight. 2007 was a break out year for Miguel’s career; he knocked out mandatory challenger Oktay Urkal and then submitted Zab Judah in a candidate for a fight of the year fight at MSG and then concluded the year by outpointing a future hall of famer Sugar Shane Mosley in a fight where he displayed a fast jab that was hurting Mosley and ability to fight backwards. Cotto is a consummate professional; as he said in a press conference, he does not have to train especially hard for Margarito, because he trains very diligently for every fight. He knows his job and he is very serious about it. He is very mature for being only twenty seven years old and his stoic demeanor seems to accentuate it; I saw him kiss a young lady fan during a press tour and it looked like he was kissing a niece or a daughter, with care and respect. Cotto is definitely a better all around fighter and he seems to be improving with each contest, besides his vicious body attack, he has displayed a fast hard jab that  rocked  Mosley’s head back almost every time it landed. In his last bout, Cotto displayed graceful movement along with fast and powerful combinations in five round destruction of overmatched Alfonso Gomez.

Margarito’s last outing was on the undercard of Cotto vs. Gomez and it was a rematch of 2005 fight with supposedly much improved IBF titlist Kermit Cintron.

Antonio took some heavy blows at the beginning of this match, he smiled and starting from the second round unleashed a violent assault and submitted his opponent in the 6^th with a body blow. It was a very impressive performance and it cleared a path to a mega fight with Cotto.

On paper, Cotto seems to be a clear favorite; he is younger, undefeated, with obvious advantages in boxing skills. Las Vegas opened the odds for this contest with Cotto being -220 and Margarito +180. However, I would like to point out that Margarito is four inches taller with six inches reach advantage and seems to be physically a stronger man. Both men will come out with heavy artillery and will try to impose their will on each other and I give the early advantage to Cotto, because of his speed  and accurate punching, but if he is not able to finish Tony off in the first six rounds and starts backing up, he might have some serious problems towards the end…

So here we are… One point of interest, Antonio and Miguel do not have one common opponent. The only point of reference I could come up with is that Cotto beat Quintana, who beat Williams, who beat Margarito, which means absolutely nothing. Styles make fights and these two warriors are sure to produce a violent combat that will become an instant classic and will have fans talking for years to come.