By Manuel Perez: With the start of the Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) vs. Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) WBA welterweight title bout only a short while from now, I just wanted to get my last prediction in before it starts. Tonight will be Antonio Margarito’s coming out party for which he’ll finally get the notoriety that has eluded him this far in his boxing career. Margarito will take his high octane offense right at the teeth of Cotto’s defense, making him either stand and trade or go down under the constant fire from Margarito’s fists. If this were any other fighter but Margarito, I would say that this would be another easy night for the Puerto Rican Cotto, but it’s not.

Margarito is all wrong for him in style, a fighter that Cotto was destined to lose to when the fight was signed months ago. Cotto would never be able to beat a fighter like Margarito perhaps even if they fought a 100 times, because of Cotto’s lack of size, his lower punch output and his inability to hurt a fighter with a chin as powerful as Margarito.

With most of the world rooting strongly for Cotto, I’m going to take great satisfaction tonight in seeing Margarito destroy him in a flurry of shots. My one hope, however, is that the beating isn’t over too quickly, for I want to see Cotto suffer a little at the hands of Margarito, to take a long, slow beating that lasts 10 or 11 rounds before it’s stopped with Cotto laying bleeding and battered on the canvas. This is my one wish tonight, and I’m almost certain that Margarito will fulfill it.

Up until now, Cotto has been the type of fighter that never gives an inch, who is always taking the fight to his opponent, trying to take them out with one heavy shot after another. What will be seeing tonight, though, is a different type of Cotto, one that will submit to Margarito early in the bout to his superior power and aggression. Instead of a face forward type of attack from Cotto, I expect to see him running at warp speed, circling the ring and trying to avoid the stinging punches from Margarito’s all out attack. Cotto’s only hope, his new jab, will be useless to stop the forward motion from Margarito, who will get past Cotto’s feeble jabs, and get to the tender heart of Cotto and start eating him up an avalanche of hooks to the head and body. In the end, I see this fight as being even easier for Margarito than his two slaughters of Kermit Cintron.

I think initially, Cotto will attempt to be brave, to try and show his machismo by standing and trading with Margarito at close range. After all, Cotto will have a huge audience full of mostly his own fans urging him on, and he’ll buy into their encouragement and think that he has the ability to slug with Margarito. When he sees that it’s not working, that he’s taking a beating from Margarito, look for him to suddenly forget about the fans and start thinking about protecting his own hide.

From then on, Cotto will probably run from Margarito like no tomorrow, trying to keep away from him at all costs. Sadly, it won’t work, and Margarito will easily corner the slow moving Cotto and rip him to shreds with big shots to the head and body, beating him like no one has ever done before. In the end, Cotto will be lying in a heap on the canvas, probably by the 7th round as Margarito is crowned the new WBA welterweight champion.