By Dan Ambrose: If 37-year-old Antonio Margarito (38-8, 27 KOs) gets his way, he’ll be facing Miguel Cotto in the near future for a third fight.
Margarito is on the verge of making a comeback after four long years out of the ring. Margarito could be with Top Rank promotions and the plan is for him to have a couple of tune-up bouts before being matched tough against an opponent that will make Margarito some money.
Margarito lost his last fight to Cotto in 2011 in getting stopped in the 9th round due to his surgically repaired eye swelling shut.
It’s not likely that Cotto will bother fighting Margarito a third time, because he’s been out of the game for so long and has lost three out of his last four fights to Cotto, Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. There’s no gain for Cotto to fight an old timer like Margarito at this point in his career. Cotto would stand to gain a lot more in multiple fights against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and in at least one fight against Gennady Golovkin.
“[Cotto] only contradicts himself, because after the second fight he was asked to compare my punching power between the fights and said there was no difference, it felt the same,” Margarito told ESPN Desportes. “I think Cotto is a girl. He has fear, because everyone wants to see a third bout. Right now we each won one fight. I think he is afraid to face Antonio Margarito in a third fight to see who is the best.”
Margarito won the first fight against Cotto in 2008 in stopping him in the 11th round of an exciting war. Cotto used a hit and run style for the first 9 rounds. However, in the 10th round, Cotto ran out of gas and was hurt by Margarito when he trapped him against the ropes and nailed him with some huge uppercuts that cut Cotto around his eyes.
“He doesn’t have the punching power to knock out Canelo Alvarez,” Margarito said about Coto. “I’m serious when I say that Cotto has no punching power and therefore I have to say it again – he hits like a girl.”
Obviously, Margarito is wrong about Cotto having no punching power. A fighter with 40 knockouts on his resume, as Cotto has, definitely has a lot of punching power. If Margarito wants a third fight against Cotto, I think the best way to do it would be for Margarito to get back inside the ring and take on someone dangerous like Gennady Golovkin.
If Margarito could beat Golovkin, then I think Cotto might pay attention to him. I don’t see Margarito targeting Golovkin, even if he did, it would likely end badly for Margarito with him getting blasted out.
It’s sad that Margarito is choosing to comeback after being out of the ring for four years, because the chances of him finding success are slim. He looked terrible in his losses to Shane Mosley, Pacquiao and Cotto. Margarito’s hand speed seemed slower than ever, and he seemed to have lost his punching power as well.
The time out of the ring couldn’t have helped Margarito’s eroding skills. Additionally, with the hand-wrap scandal from his fight against Mosley in 2009, I doubt that any of the top fighters would want to risk fighting Margarito.
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