By Jason Kim: Antonio Margarito may have left more behind than he realizes in defeating Miguel Cotto last July in a 11th round TKO victory. Much has been said of Margarito’s incredible pain tolerance to be able to walk through ten rounds of devastating shots from Cotto, the type of punches that would have dropped 99% of any other fighter in boxing. Margarito took them all, and came on strong in the 10th round after Cotto wore himself out, taking him out in the 11th with hooks and uppercuts.
The 10 rounds of punishment that Margarito withstood may have had a more last effect than many people, including himself, realizes. Against Shane Mosley on Saturday night, Margarito, 29, looked like only a shell of his former self in the fight. He showed no energy, power or the ability to fight hard for more than a few seconds of every round.
In essence, he looked worn out, like someone that has been through a terrible ordeal and wasn’t in the condition to battle with anyone, least of all a good fighter like Mosley. Being able to remain standing at the end of a fight doesn’t always tell the true story of what’s going on internally.
In this case, Margarito may have had too much taken out of him by Cotto in that fight, so much that It left him only a partial fighter and without his fearsome warrior skills that he had previously. The same may hold true for Cotto. We’ll be finding out just how much he has left in his next fight with Michael Jennings on February 21st.
Nevertheless, Margarito never had it on Saturday night in my expert opinion and fought like a fraction of himself through all nine rounds of the fight. Mosley did well, fighting his usual fight but it was more of what Margarito didn’t have than what Mosley did in this case. It’s still a little premature to tell for sure, but in the next fight or two for Margarito, we should see within a shadow of a doubt whether I’m correct or not about by my premise.
Margarito will probably go after someone good next, and not want to take a backwards step by facing a third tier fighter. That’ll be a huge mistake, because he needs to rest above all, maybe take a year off and let his head clear from all the punishment that he took in the Cotto fight.
After a year, Margarito should work his way back and depending on how well he does, then go forward and try to land a fight with someone like Cotto or one of the other champions in the welterweight division. I’m not sure if a fighter can ever recover after a beating, as I think it might have permanent effects and not temporary, but Margarito needs to give himself a rest to make sure he doesn’t possibly make things worse for himself. With something like this, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
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