By Jim Dower: If everything goes smoothly with his fight against Carson Jones (40-11-3, 30 KOs) this Saturday night, former IBF/WBA/WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (40-8, 27 KOs) would like to fight Miguel Cotto for his WBO junior middleweight title.
Margarito, 39, has already fought Cotto twice with both fighters winning 1 fight a piece. A third fight between them would prove who the better fighter is of the two. Cotto is planning on wrapping up his career in December with one last fight. However, Cotto hasn’t mentioned Margarito’s name as the fighter that he wants to face in December.
Cotto wants the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight. That’s the guy he’s shooting for. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler likes the idea of matching Golovkin against Cotto in December if he gets past Canelo in their fight on September 16.
Margarito and Jones, 31, will be fighting this Saturday night on September 2 in a 10 round fight at the Gimnasio Manuel Barnardo Aguirre, in Chihuahua, Mexico. Margarito hasn’t fought in a year since beating Canelo’s brother Ramon Alvarez by a 10 round split decision on August 13, 2016. There is a very good chance that Margarito will lose this fight. Jones is an active fighter with a lot of power, and a reasonable amount of talent.
”This fight is important for my plan to again become world champion. I want to fight Miguel Cotto in a third and final fight and Jones will not stop me,” said Margarito via Fightnews.com.
Margarito isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at this time. Will a win over Jones get Margarito ranked, it’s a good question. It’s possible that a big win for Margarito over Jones could get him elevated in the World Boxing Organization’s top 15 rankings so that Cotto can fight him. Margarito will be lucky if he can get a bottom 15 ranking with the WBO after a win over journeyman Carson Jones on Saturday.
Margarito should set his sights a little lower than facing Cotto again, as it’s not likely to ever happen. Cotto is aiming to get a big money fight in December against Gennady Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. There was a time when a fight between Cotto and Margarito would make a lot of money, but that time is passed.
Cotto would take the fight whether Margarito is rated or not if he were truly interested in fighting him a third time. I’m not sure that Cotto wants to bother fighting Margarito again. Cotto did a pretty good job of beating up Margarito and stopping him in the 9th round their rematch on December 3, 2011. Cotto took advantage of Margarito’s surgically repaired eye by nailing him with shots that eventually caused the eye to close. The ringside doctor had no choice but to stop the fight.
Margarito hadn’t fought in over 1 year when he battled Cotto in the rematch. Going into the Cotto rematch, Margarito had several eye surgeries on his injured eye that he sustained in his fight against Manny Pacquiao on November 13, 2010.