Margarito vs. Cotto: Will Miguel’s Chin Hold Up?

By Chris Williams: Welterweight Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) will be bringing it this Saturday night against Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs), hoping to take away his WBA welterweight crown and in the process removing the aura that surrounds Cotto and makes him seem unbeatable. It is doubtful that Margarito, 30, really knows what’s in store for him this Saturday against Cotto. He may have heard the hype, seen him fight a few times, but it’s going to be a whole different matter to have to actually go in the ring and face him. Cotto isn’t unbeatable, however, because he’s sometimes hurt in his fights, although never serious enough for him to lose. Looking back on his past fights, he’s done well to get by the bigger punchers he’s faced like Ricardo Torres, whom he was badly hurt against but recovered to eventually stop in the 7th round. Since moving up from the light welterweight division in

Up until this point in his seven-year boxing career, undefeated WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) has had the physical and offensive advantages over every one of his opponents, but this Saturday Cotto will finally meet a fighter in December 2006, Cotto has done well, defeating several good fighters in Zab Judah, Shane Mosley and Alfonso Gomez, and only getting stunned for a moment in his fight with Judah in June 2007.

He’s not particularly fast, not nearly so as Judah and Mosley, both of which Cotto beat in 2007. Margarito perhaps throws too many looping punches for his own good, which often leaves him open for shots down the middle by his opponents. He’s had it pretty easy since losing to Williams in July 2007, beating Golden Johnson and Kermit Cintron, neither of which took advantage of Margarito’s wide punches. Cotto, however, will probably try and take advantage of this flaw in Margarito’s style of attack and bust him with shots down the middle.

It wouldn’t be a flaw if Margarito was able to change his style at times, concentrating on throwing other types of punches, but he mostly always throws wide hooks which take longer to travel to their targets in the wide arcs that they’re thrown. Even Margarito’s so-called great chin may be in question, because his reputation rests largely on his two fights with Cintron, with both ending fairly quickly before Cintron could really test Margarito with very many big shots.

Cintron still ended up hurting Margarito with a big right hand early in the 1st fight, but he overestimated how badly he had hurt him, and hence left himself open for Margarito’s hooks when he came in for the kill. Cotto isn’t as eager and Cintron, and probably won’t go all out until he knows that the fight is knocked out of Margarito, and that he’s not a threat with his hooks.