Margarito disappointed with stoppage loss, says “Cotto hits like a girl”

By Dan Ambrose: Antonio Margarito wasn’t pleased with the ringside doctor stopping the fight at the start of the 10th round tonight against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden, New York. Margarito’s right eye had pretty much closed by that point in the fight and the doctor didn’t want to take any chances and allow Margarito get get hurt worse.

Margarito was well behind in the fight by that point because the fight was just then getting to the interesting point where Margarito could have tested Cotto’s chin during the championship rounds. Unfortunately, Margarito’s previously injured right eye wasn’t able to hold up under the pounding tonight. That’s something I suspected would happen, because when you have an eye that was just operated on twice, it’s going to swell up when it gets hit. The fight really needed to have been put together a year from now instead of tonight, because Margarito needed more time in my view for his eye to heal up before having it hit over and over again.

After the fight, Margarito said “I told them how many numbers they were holding up, but I knew they were out to protect him. It’s his building. I hurt him. Look at his face. I’ll say it again. He hits like a girl.”

Margarito fought his heart out tonight and seemed to be wearing Cotto down at the time the doctor stepped in and pulled the plug on the fight. I would have liked to have seen how the fight had gone in the last three rounds. Cotto might have gassed out again, but we’ll never know now.

I hope this is the last time Bob Arum matches Cotto and Margarito up, because I think Margarito’s right eye is too badly damaged for a third fight between them. Arum needs to match Cotto against some able bodied and younger fighters instead of injured and old guys that he’s been matching him up against late. Cotto fought a fighter with only one good leg last year n Yuri Foreman, and in his recent fight he beat 38-year-old Ricardo Mayorga, who is almost 10 years past his prime. Where are the young guys or at least people who aren’t partially damaged.