Cotto-Margarito: Trinidad Would Have Never Taken a Knee
August 11th, 2008
By Manuel Perez: Felix Trinidad (42-3, 35 KOs) has always been one of my favorite fighters, a warrior that never gave an inch, even in losses to Winky Wright, Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins. After seeing Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) twice take a knee against Antonio Margarito in their recent fight on July 26th, I could only imagine would Trinidad must have been thinking when he saw it. Believe me, Trinidad would have never taken a knee. He might have lost to a fighter as fierce and determined as Margarito, although I’m not so certain that would happen, but I can’t see him ever taking a knee once, let alone twice like Cotto did.
Trinidad in his prime would have rather gone down swinging rather than to yield the white flag of surrender and submit by taking a knee. I know of course that people will say that Cotto didn’t actually quit, that his trainer waived towel signaling for the fight to be stopped, but taking a knee two times is as close as you can get to surrendering in battle. Trinidad fought his heart out in every fight, winning some and losing some, but with him you always felt that he would go down swinging and that he wouldn’t just give up when things got rough in the ring. If it had been Trinidad in the ring with Margarito, he would have fought until the very last ounce of his energy was gone, and made Margarito take him out the old fashion way – with his fists. Perhaps this is the new generation of boxers or something, because I don’t understand it myself.
Trinidad, for all his defects as a fighter, he was never lacking in courage and never tried to take the easy way out. He also never ducked an opponent. Heck, he’d go out of his way to fight the toughest opponent he could get. Case in point, him moving up to the middleweight division to fight Bernard Hopkins. I would also include Hopkins as a fighter that I can’t see ever taking a knee in a fight, although he does go down when hit low. Trinidad was just seemed to live by a credo of wanting to fight as hard as he could, and if he had to lose, you can bet it wouldn’t be because he was taking a knee and signaling that he didn’t want to take anymore punishment.
I think that once a fighter starts taking a knee, it becomes easier the next time they get in trouble to take a knee again, so that they can avoid a tough situation. Sometimes you just got to face your problems head on, and take what’s coming to you whether you like it or not. I think that’s something that Trinidad exemplified in his brilliant boxing career. I just hope that maybe a little bit of Trinidad can rub off on Cotto, because he needs recapture that never say quit attitude that Trinidad used to show in the ring.
13 Responses to “Cotto-Margarito: Trinidad Would Have Never Taken a Knee”
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Yes bad chin but always recovered in less tha 2 second and always ended up knocking out hes oponents except for hop and roy
you would too if you were getting hit with plaster.
You should all watch the tapes again and picture yourselves in the ring. Cotto Boxed and couldn’t keep him away. The Punshes to the head werent as effective as the ones Margarito received by Moseley. Moseley has Longer arms and can put his body into it. If Cotto would have punshed that way with his short arms he could’ve los balance and gotten knocked out in the earlier rounds. Different strokes for different folks. Cotto should just work extra on conditioning and now that he knows what Margarito’s best is like he should study every single move. Let’s see how far would Margarito get that way.
Cotto should just do what he was doing in the first 5 rounds. Cover himself more and work in his conditioning to last the 12 rounds with the same rythm. The other thing would be to watch any of the tricks Margarito has. Like illegal wrapping of the fist. That’s nothing u should be playing with. U could kill somebody that way and for you Mr. Know it all did you see Cotto’s face?? I would like to see you box someday and see if u have the same heart as he those. A Small guy taking the most feared boxer. COTTO is a complete representation of our ISLAND small, but with a big heart and we could beat any huge nation if we want to.
Man u are fool of caca. If Trinidad would have measured 5′7 against a 5′11 Margarito and gotten hit by the way Cotto got hit the fight would have been over like in the third round. Trinidad had good hooks, but a weak chin and he had tasted floor more than a hand full of times in the welterweight, junior middle weight, and middle weight division. For a 5′11 guy that is unusual. Trinidad was good lets just say he was an exciting boxer to watch, but he is no COTTO. Cotto is Rocky. They should make o movie out of him.
talking about the trinidad and margarito matchup trinidad is the only puncher who had a chance of breaking down margaritos jaw and if trinidad would take his career more seriuos than the last few years that fight probably would be happening.iIT WOULD BE A GREAT FIGHT!
This must be the official site for Cotto haters.
Cotto tried but failed miserably.
He will never be the same after that beat down. He was broken down from head to toe and does not deserve a rematch, he may want to go back and fight jr. welters again.
i think he wassent ready for the fight he underestemated margariot but trust me in the rematch cotto is gonna f@#$% up margarito i cant wait
He already took a knee against Jones.
personally, i think cotto needs to train harder. he ran out of gas. some fighters train harder than others. when a fighter tires out in the 7th or 8th round, something is wrong physically or he did not train. some of these new young guys could never fight 15 rounds. as far as taking a knee, it can be a good tactic if you are overwhelmed and need space. cotto needed space. he just needs to train harder. do more anaerobic work.
I’ll draw attention to David haye v Enzo maccarinelli. If Enzo had been sensible enough to take a knee when Haye caught him, he might have seen the end of round two.
It’s not dirty in the same way as a low blow surely is and it still counts as aknockdown so there’s the obvious point deficit you incur, too.
It’s the last defence of the brokwn fighter and it’s understandable. I remember doing three rounds as an amateur and praying for the bell to end it – had I done ten rounds with Antonio margarito I’d have dropped to both knees and invoked the virgin mary.
Trinidad got smashed by Hopkins and went to sleep on the canvas. Cotto was a smart fighter and if he’d have got counted out it could have hurt him more in the long run. Winky is hardly an animaland Jones let Trinidad off the hook big time. To suggest Cotto is gutless is just the opinion of a trinidad nut-hugger who hates the fact their is a new boy in PR town.