Cotto vs. Margarito: Why Antonio Will Win

By Boxing News - 07/24/2008 - Comments

margarito54247.jpgBy Jason Kim: For the past week, most of the boxing public have quickly taken sides with one fighter or the other with most of the backing WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) to retain his title with a victory over Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) this Saturday night at the at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, as much as I’ve tried to see what the other people are concentrating on to make such a choice, I just can’t see it happening that way. I like Cotto as a fighter because he’s very entertaining, much more so than Floyd Mayweather Jr., who much to my relief he retired recently from boxing.

However, Cotto is really more of a small welterweight and has benefited by facing either shot welterweights or ones that are also small like himself. The beating of these lower quality fighters have helped build up the mystique of Cotto, making him seem virtually unbeatable in the minds of many boxing fans. However, with a clear view of the situation, the fans seem to be using poor judgment in choosing Cotto because he’s still unproven as a fighter and as welterweight despite his glamorous 32-0 record. In effect, you can completely throw out his entire record because every one of his fights have been meaningless in helping him prepare for this Saturday’s fight with Margarito.

None of the fighters he’s faced have been as tall, as good or as active a puncher as Margarito. Sure, Shane Mosely, who Cotto beat narrowly in 2007 with an ugly 12-round decision, was perhaps a better overall fighter in his prime than Margarito, but that was against limited competition. Mosley made his name as a top lightweight in the 90s, where he was perhaps one of the best ever. As a welterweight, he was only able to hold onto his title for three fights before being defeated against a big welterweight by the name of Vernon Forrest.

I have no doubts at all that Mosley would have likewise been beaten by Margarito if they had fought early in 2000, and it likely would have been an easy win for Margarito. Cotto, however, struggled badly against Mosley, and had to resort to running in the later rounds to pull out the fight. I personally scored the bout a draw because Cotto gave away too many rounds with his inability to fight effectively in the second half of the fight. This is arguably Cotto’s best win of his career, yet even that is pretty empty considering that it was more less than convincing.



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