By Allen Fox: Antonio Margarito’s eye problems continued in his loss to WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto last weekend with Margarito sustaining a cut on right eye that required 12 stitches to close after the fight.

The cut was the Least of Margarito’s problems in the Cotto fight; the real problem was Margarito’s right eye quickly closing up by the 7th round and getting worse until it was almost completely closed by the start of the 10th.

The ringside doctor out of worry for Margarito decided to halt the fight. Perhaps if the doctor didn’t have knowledge ahead of time about Margarito having sustained a fractured right orbital bone in his last fight last year against Manny Pacquiao, maybe the doctor would have given Margarito additional time in the fight.

But the doctor did know and decided to stop the fight rather than let it continue and risk Margarito suffering damage.

It’s unclear why the eye closed so quickly. One theory is that Cotto was targeting the eye from the very start to try and damage it to get a quick stoppage. But in looking at the fight, Cotto really didn’t seem to aim his shots there. He was mixing them up to all areas of Margarito’s face. But more likely the cause of the swelling is the eye is now tender from the surgeries and isn’t in shape to be punched on repeatedly the way a normal eye is.

Margarito not only suffered a fractured orbital one on that eye, but he also had two surgeries on it to repair the damage. In looking at Margarito’s eye before the fight in the 24/7 series episodes, Margarito’s eye looked permanently disfigured. It doesn’t look like his other eye and Margarito seemed self-conscious about it because he chose to wear sunglasses pretty much all of the time except when he was training.