Boxing in Las Vegas: Butch Gottlieb on Cotto-Margarito.htm

COTTO-MARGARITO LIVES UP TO HYPE

by Butch Gottlieb

Finally, a fight lives up to it's hype. Tonight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Antonio Margarito did what he said he was going to do and that was to hand WBA welterweight champion, Miguel Cotto his first loss and take the title back to Mexico.

Margarito stopped Cotto in round eleven when Cotto's corner threw in the towel after Cotto had been down twice in the round and was bleeding from his nose, mouth and left eye.
Cotto had won four of the first five rounds but Margarito took over in round six and was leading on two scorecards 96-94 with the third scorecard having the fight even at 95-95 at the end of the tenth.

Sitting on his stool in the corner after round five, Margarito told his trainer that Cotto was getting weak and that he was going to knock him out.

Margarito, never taking a backwards step in the fight continued to pressure Cotto and walked right through everything that Cotto hit him with. Margarito threw almost 1000 (987 to be exact) punches in the ten completed rounds landing 267 of which 237 of them were power shots. Over the last five rounds Margarito out landed Cotto in power shots 134-70.

"Obviously, Cotto is a very strong fighter," Margarito told reporters. "I told my corner during the fight that I would knock him out and I did.

"He never hurt me. That was the game plan, to come out early and strong and knock him out. I got him with body shots, then I hit him in the head, and I knocked him out."

Cotto praised his opponent afterwards.

"I'm very proud and very happy I was able to give the fans a great fight," he said. "Life continues. It isn't over. I'm going to take a long break and decide what I'm going to do next.

"This was Margarito's night. He's an excellent fighter and he did his job better than I did mine."

At the post fight press conference, Top Rank chief Bob Arum said that they had already talked to Golden Boy Promotions about an Oscar De La Hoya-Cotto/Margarito matchup for De La Hoya's final fight on December 6th and was told by Golden Boy that if Margarito defeats Cotto they are not interested in that fight.

This is the kind of fight that boxing needed to bring the fans back. Two great fighters, not doing any trash talking, just meeting in the ring and letting the best man come out on top.

Return to main page