Cotto-Margarito rematch won’t occur unless Antonio can get his boxing license back

By Boxing News - 06/12/2010 - Comments

By Jim Dower: If Antonio Margarito (38-6, 27 KO’s) and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum want a rematch with World Boxing Association junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) to take place, it’s probably going to require that the 32-year-old Margarito get his boxing license back in California or least acquire a boxing license to fight in New York, New Jersey, Nevada or Texas. In an article at El Nuevo Dia, the 29-year-old Cotto said he was open to fighting Margarito again if the cash is there and if Margarito can get his backing license back.

I think it might be difficult for Margarito to get his boxing license back from the California Athletic Commission because that’s where Margarito lost his license a year ago after a plaster-like substance was found in his hand wraps before his bout against Shane Mosley on January 24th, 2009. Margarito has done his part and served his year suspension without fighting.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be granted his boxing license back if he applies there. Margarito probably won’t, though, because Arum is into setting stadium fights now and he could put a Cotto-Foreman fight in a stadium in New York like the Yankee Stadium where Cotto just finished defeating Yuri Foreman on June 5th to capture the WBA junior middleweight title or Arum could put the Cotto-Margarito rematch at the Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

But it can’t happen unless Margarito gets his boxing license back soon, so that Arum can reserve the stadium ahead of time. Cotto probably won’t agree to fight Margarito in his home country of Mexico, so that’s probably a waste of time for Arum to use that as a backup plan if Margarito gets denied in getting his boxing license back in the United States.

Cotto’s trainer Emanuel Steward would prefer that Cotto not give Margarito a rematch, which he feels would be rewarding him. Steward would rather Cotto move back down to the welterweight division, fight guys his own size and look to get a fight against Pacquiao. Cotto may have to hold onto the WBA light middleweight title a little longer than he would like while he waits for the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations and/or fight to finish.

Cotto wants and maybe needs the WBA title in order to create a reason for Pacquiao to want to bother to fight him again. Without the WBA title, Cotto becomes a much less appealing opponent for Pacquiao because Cotto was already completely dominated by Pacquiao in a 12th round TKO loss a year ago in November 2009. The fight was so one-sided that there would seem to be no real reason why a rematch should or would occur. I

t would be like matching George Foreman back up with Joe Frazier. There just isn’t any real need for it and Cotto hasn’t done much to redeem himself since the loss to Pacquiao other than beat an injured Yuri Foreman, who came into their June 5th fight with a bad leg, which finally gave out completely on him just when the fight was getting interesting to watch. I

f Cotto has to wait around for the Pacquiao rematch to take place, it means he’ll have to defend the WBA title against the contenders in that division. Since Arum has a tendency to match his fighters in his stable against each other, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Cotto put in with the unbeaten Vanes Martirosyan.

I kind of doubt that Arum make that fight, because if Cotto loses the fight, which probably wouldn’t make a lot of money, the chances of a big money rematch against Pacquiao would go out the window. If Cotto defends his WBA junior middleweight title at all, it might be against one of the bottom ranked guys in the top 15 to ensure that Cotto doesn’t take another beating like the ones he received against Margarito, Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey.



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