By Manuel Perez: Sometimes speed and boxing skill are meaningless in a fight. This was never more apparent than tonight when Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) using a relentless offensive attack took apart previously undefeated Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) in a methodical beating, ultimately ending when the bloody and battered Cotto was dropped twice in the 11th round from big shots from Margarito. For all the boxing fans and so-called experts that picked Cotto to win, they seemed to overlook a lot of the advantages that Margarito had going into the fight, starting with his enormous work rate and excellent chin.

Indeed, it seemed painfully obvious to me going to the fight that if Cotto couldn’t hurt the steel-chinned Margarito, then he would be in for a tough time in the second half of the fight when Cotto often times tires out. Margarito made his fatigue that much quicker by constantly battering him with 100 punches per rounds, never for once letting up on Cotto for an instant in any of the rounds. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: Welterweight prospect Jesus Soto-Karass (21-3-3, 15 KOs) scored a sudden knockout in the 8th over David Estrada (22-5, 13 KOs) on Friday night to win the vacant NABF welterweight title at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Soto-Karass, 25, connected with a big left hook in the 8th round just as Estrada was attempting to land a left of his own, stunning him badly. Karass quickly followed up with a quick flurry of shots, sending Estrada down to the canvas. He immediately sprang to his feet, but was badly hurt and the fight was stopped by referee Tony Weeks at 1:03 of the 8th round.

Estrada, 29, perhaps took this fight a little too soon after his 11th round TKO loss to Andre Berto two fights ago in September 2007, and he probably should have reconsidered taking on a fighter as young and as tough as the 25 year-old Soto-Karass. Immediately it was clear in the first round that Estrada would be having problems against Soto-Karass as he took big looping hooks from his constantly in the round. Near the end of the round, Estrada was staggered by a big right hand from Soto-Karass and then took a big number of shots as the round came to a halt. Read more…

By Jason Kim: Using an early body attack, Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) took the wind out of WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto’s (32-1, 26 KOs) sails, stopping him in the 11th round of a scheduled 12-round bout tonight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto, 27, led most of the way taking most of the early rounds of the fight with his faster hands and blistering counter punching. However, as if on key, Cotto tired out in the second half of the fight and began to take serious punishment at the hands of Margarito, who for his part just never stopped punching. Read more…

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. Read more…

By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, former IBF super middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (24-1, 17 KOs) is retiring from boxing. In an article from the Tampa Tribune, Lacy, 31, said that he’ll be getting out of boxing and retiring altogether from the sport. If this turns out to be the case, it would wipe Lacy’s upcoming bout with Jermain Taylor which is slated for November 15th. It’s unclear whether Lacy is serious about his retirement comments or is just upset over his recent narrow defeat of journeyman Epifanio Mendoza on Wednesday night.

In that fight, Lacy, after a initially a good start in the fight, was hurt badly on two occasions in the 2nd and 8th rounds, staggering badly and ended up taking Mendoza down to the canvas in the 8th with a rough tackle. It was for Lacy his third poor performance since losing to Joe Calzaghe in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss in March 2006. At the time of the Calzaghe bout, Lacy was considered by many boxing fans and writers to be perhaps the best super middleweight in the world, with many of them feeling that Lacy would beat Calzaghe. However, as it turned out, Lacy was soundly beaten by Calzaghe, who swept every round and gave Lacy a tremendous beating during much of the way. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: Middleweight contender Gary Lockett (30-2, 21 KOs) still hasn’t made up his mind as to whether or not he’ll continue his boxing career. However, he did tell Setanta Sports that he plans on making his decision public in September, which one would hope is a confirmation that he intends on continuing with is career. Lockett, only 31, doesn’t like the idea of going back to fighting lesser fighters and bouts that are against “non-title fights and British title fights,” according to Setanta Sports.

After working his way to the number #1 ranking and fighting WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik for the championship on June 7th, and losing by a 3rd round TKO, Lockett doesn’t like the idea of having to work his way back up slowly against lower echelon fighters for much less money. One might expect, Lockett received a huge payday in his fight against Pavlik, and naturally he probably doesn’t relish the idea of fighting for much less money against 3rd tier fighters once again. Who can blame Lockett, though? Read more…

By Thomas Hanson: WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) faces his toughest opponent of his boxing career against Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto, 27, has been portrayed by most fans and writers as the perfect fighter on earth, a young talent without any defects whatsoever and almost destined to stay unbeaten for his entire career. As most Cotto fans would tell it, he’s going to make easy work of Margarito, who stands no chance against Cotto. I’m not sure if what they say is correct, since Cotto hasn’t exactly impressed in fights against Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Oktay Urkal, Paul Malignaggi, Mohamad Abdulaev and DeMarcus Corley.

Cotto did enough to get wins out of every bout, but he didn’t look like the phenom that most boxing fans are making him out to be. To me, he looked good, but not a fighter in the class of a young Sugar Ray Leonard or Tommy Hearns, both of whom I could see beating Cotto with little problems due to his lack of hand speed, movement and one-punch knockout power. This brings us to Cotto’s bout with Margarito on Saturday night. Cotto is going against an opponent in Margarito who has a chin clearly much better than him, and who has a work rate which is twice the level of his. This means that Cotto is going to have to find another way to win if his attempt at scoring a knockout doesn’t happen. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: #1 ranked WBC lightweight Jose Armando Santa Cruz (26-3, 15 KOs) made easy work of journeyman Miguel Angel Munguia (16-13-1, 13 KOs) in a 5th round TKO on Wednesday night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Santa Cruz, 27, dominated every round except for the 1st, and put a hopelessly outclassed Munguia away with a leaping left hook to the midsection in the 5th round. Munguia rolled around on the canvas afterwards, in obvious pain from the shot to the midsection while referee Jack Reiss counted him out at 0:42 of the round.

Santa Cruz was coming off a controversial 12-round split decision to Joel Casamayor, who just happened to be in the audience on Wednesday night. The fight against Munguia was meant as a stay busy fight for Santa Cruz, a fight to stay sharp while he waits for a title shot. Going into the fight, Munguia had lost 12 out of his last 14 fights dating back to 2003. Perhaps knowing that he stood almost no chance of beating a fighter as good as Santa Cruz, Munguia came out on fire in the first round throwing a storm of punches at Santa Cruz. In all, Munguia threw an incredible 103 punches, yet landed only 19 mostly wide slapping to the head and body of Santa Cruz. Still, the punches had an effect on Santa Cruz, reddening his face and keeping him busy trying to block and unable to start his own offense up. Read more…

By Chris Williams: Super middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs (8-0, 7 KOs) once again scored a 1st round TKO, this being his 6th TKO in the first round out of seven total knockouts on his record. His latest victim, Sergio Rios (18-9, 16 KOs), was dropped to the canvas late in the round after taking a four punch combination to the head. Although the last punch that hit Rios, a powerful right hand, didn’t appear to connect cleanly, but it still had the effect of knocking Rios to the canvas as if he were ran over by a truck. Referee Raul Caiz moved in immediately and halted the fight at 2:46 of the 1st round. Whether the punch landed cleanly or not, Rios was taking severe punishment in the round from Jacobs, who was making every punch he threw count.

Using mostly hooks, Jacobs hammered Rios to the body and head steadily in the round. The shots were all thrown very hard, and Rios, who had lost eight of his last nine fights going into Wednesday’s bout with Jacobs, looked uneasy in the first few seconds of the fight after tasting a few powerful hooks from Jacobs. Every punch that Jacobs landed was a like a mini explosion going off, making a loud sound and causing Rios to take a backwards step with every blow. Rios, for his part, hardly threw anything back at all during the entire round and was mostly busy taking tremendous punishment. Read more…

By Chris Williams: Undefeated featherweight prospect Carlos Ivan Velasquez (8-0, 7 KOs) stopped David Vazquez (17-13-3, 10 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled six-round bout on Wednesday night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Velasquez, 23, staggered Vazquez with a big left hand in the 2nd round, and then finished him off with a flurry of shots while his back was against the ropes. Referee Raul Caiz moved in and halted the bout at 1:12 of the 2nd round after a final crushing right hand from Velasquez caused Vazquez to sag and collapse against the bottom ring rope.

Velasquez, 5′10″, gave top featherweight contender Yuriorkis Gamboa his last defeat in the 2006 at the Central America and Caribbean Games, which Velasquez would later go on to win the Gold medal at the games. At first hearing this, I thought perhaps the win was a fluke, because Gamboa has looked almost unbeatable since turning professional. However, as soon as the fight started, I could see how would have beaten Gamboa, since Velasquez’s speed, height, long reach and power would have been a huge problem for the tiny 5′5″ Gamboa to have to deal with effectively. Indeed, Velasquez looked every bit as good as Gamboa, perhaps even better because of his ability to punch from long distance due to his long reach and height. Read more…

By Chris Williams: Former IBF super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (24-1, 17 KOs) battled long and hard on Wednesday night winning a 10-round majority decision over Colombian journeyman Epifanio Mendoza (28-6-1, 24 KOs) at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 97-93 and 95-95. I had Mendoza winning the fight by one round, although I could see the fight being scored a draw, but definitely not a victory for Lacy. He did little after the 5th round, and appeared to lose the 6th though 9th rounds by a wide margin while also being badly hurt in the 2nd and 8th rounds. Given Mendoza’s lack of popularity among boxing fans, I wasn’t particularly surprised that he came out the losing end of the fight, but let’s not kid ourselves, Lacy, 31, didn’t come close to winning the fight and should consider himself very fortunate to have been given the gift decision.

Afterwards, sounding more than a little defensive, Lacy, his left eye swollen, said “I think I did a marvelous job. He [Epifanio Mendoza] should have done what he had to do in the ring to get the win.” Read more…

By 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. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: The more and more I see of David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs), I think he’s not really cut out to be a heavyweight. His 6′2″ frame seems still far too smallish to achieve what he’s trying to accomplish by moving up from the cruiserweight limit of 200 lbs. Although there are some decent smaller heavyweights in the division like Monte Barrett, Lamon Brewster and Brian Minto, Haye doesn’t appear to even as big as those fighters. Recently I saw him on Setanta Sports with Steve Bunce and Haye looked a little larger than he had while fighting as a cruiserweight, but mostly he just appeared plain fat, with a noticeable gut on him.

With three months to go before his fight on the Vitali Klitschko vs. Samuel Peter undercard on October 18th, he still has time to put on some size, but I don’t see how it will make him anything other than a small heavyweight. To be sure, it’s difficult to put on 30-40 lbs of muscle in a short time like Haye is trying to accomplish, and probably even harder to be able to use the weight effectively that is put on in a hurry. In Haye’s case, he needs to gain a lot of weight before he’s able to compete with the top heavyweights, and if he’s at all serious about taking on a top contender in his next fight, he’s probably making a fatal mistake in doing so. He’s had big problems when facing opponents that can take his shots, as evidenced in his fight with Giacobbe Fragomeni in November 2006. Read more…

By Sean McDaniel: I must admit first off, when I initially heard about unbeaten WBC/WBO middleweight champion fighting 43 year-old Bernard Hopkins (48-5, 32 KOs) in a non-title bout held at the catch weight of 170 lbs, I thought it was a bad decision for Pavlik because he’d easily win a dull 12-round fight. But now that I’ve had time to think it over, I’m starting to come to the belief that Hopkins may actually be able to win this fight quite handily in fact.

Pavlik, 26, perhaps the hardest puncher in the middleweight division today, doesn’t have much experience in fights that he’s had to win by the use of more technical skills. So far, he’s been able to get by with his power and heavy pressure both of which have enabled him to blast out or decision good but not great opponents like Jermain Taylor, Gary Lockett, Edison Miranda, Jose Luis Zertuche, Bronco McKart and Fulgencio Zuniga. And, with the exception of McKart, they each went right at Pavlik trying to take him out with big shots and beat him at his own game. Taylor, who had previously been stopped by Pavlik in a 7th round TKO in September 2007, tried to make some adjustments to his style and box more against him in their rematch in February 2008. Read more…

By Manuel Perez: As the saying goes, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” That may be even more true in terms of this Saturday night’s bout between challenger Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) and WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. By an avalanche of opinion, most boxing fans, betters and writers are choosing Cotto, 27, to defeat Margarito. The reason for their choice is varied, having to do mostly with Cotto’s recent development of boxing skills - a jab, better movement and the use of strategy rather than his old style of slugging - as the primary reason why they feel that Cotto will defeat Margarito.

Most of them doubt that Cotto can even come close to matching Margarito punch for punch, but they seem to feel that Cotto will be able to keep from getting hit enough to win the fight by a decision or possibly a knockout. The general consensus is that Cotto won’t be able to hurt Margarito with a shot to the head, and will have to focus on landing a hard body shot in order to drop or take out Margarito. Read more…

By Aaron Klein: Super middleweight Jeff Lacy (23-1, 17 KOs) returns to the ring tonight after a seven month layoff to face the powerful but slow Epifanio Mendoza (28-5, 24 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Lacy, 31, is still trying to get his once promising boxing career back on track after experiencing a humiliating 12-round unanimous decision loss to undefeated super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe in March 2006.

The loss, a brutally one-sided affair, seemed to take a lot out of Lacy, who was pounded unceasingly in every round of the fight. In all honesty, the fight probably should have been stopped by the 7th round when it had become apparent to most, if not all ringside boxing observers, that Lacy was far too slow and mechanical to catch up to the speedy more experienced Calzaghe and had no chance of knocking him out. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champions John Ruiz (43-7-1, 29 KOs) and Nikolay Valuev (48-1, 34 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBA heavyweight title on August 30th at Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, in Berlin, Germany. The title was vacated by WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev who has been struck down several times with serious illnesses and injuries causing him to cancel two title defenses and a planned unification bout. Chagaev’s latest medical problem, a tear of his Achilles tendon, caused a second cancellation of his title defense against Valuev which had been previously scheduled for July 5th.

Ruiz, 36 and Valuev previously met in December 2005, when Valuev took a controversial 12-round majority decision over Ruiz to take his title in a fight fought in Germany. The final decision, however, seemed not to match the actual fight that took place for Ruiz landed the harder shots and appeared to dominate most, if not all, of the exchanges that took place in the fight. The location of the bout, fought in Germany where Valuev, 34, is currently promoted, seemed to lead to more speculation by boxing fans that Ruiz had been the victim of a home town decision. Despite the controversy surrounding the outcome of the fight, Ruiz was never given a rematch with Valuev - until now. Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: After watching unbeaten heavyweight Alexander Povetkin (16-0, 12 KOs) dispatch a rather reluctant, timid-looking Taurus Sykes (25-5-1, 7 KOs) in the 4th round last Saturday night at the Olimpyskiy Sports Palace, in Chekhov, Russia, I have grave concerns about whether Povetkin, 28, is ready for a fight against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in the near future. Given the fact that Povetkin not too long ago won the IBF tournament to become Klitschko’s number # 1 mandatory challenger, by defeating Americans Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers, it put Povetkin in line for a shot against Klitschko.

That’s all well and good, but with only 16 fights under his belt, I’m not sure if it’s especially smart for Povetkin to be thrust into a fight this early with a fighter as seasoned, powerful, elusive and as tall as Wladimir. Say what you will about Wladimir having a bad chin, but he’s done reasonably good job of protecting it for the past four years, going unbeaten in his last nine fights since losing to Lamon Brewster by a 5th round TKO in April 2004. Povetkin, a 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist and considered perhaps the 2nd or 3rd best heavyweight in the division at this point, doesn’t really have the kind of one-punch power that Wladimir has historically had problems with. Read more…

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. Read more…

By Dan Ambrose: 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 Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) is superior to Cotto in every possible way - work rate, size, reach, chin and experience - with the exception of youth and power. There are a lot of things working against the young 27 year-old Cotto going into this bout, and regardless of the things that he’s accomplished up until now in beating mostly lesser fighters or fighters considered over the hill, it may do little to prepare him for what Margarito will be bringing to the ring on Saturday night.

Size: The size alone, with Margarito towering over Cotto by four inches and with a reach advantage of half a foot, will be huge obstacle for Cotto to get past. However, the height advantage might be minimized because Margarito tends to stand in close and loop many of his punches, not using his reach to his full benefit. But, when Margarito does choose to fight on the outside, Cotto, a fighter who tends to fight mostly on the inside, will likely find that he’s unable to get his big body shots nor land his excellent jab. Read more…