By Jim Dower: Former IBF/WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KO’s) says he thinks he’ll be ready to fight in June against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in a rematch. It’s unclear whether the fight can be made at that early date, because Cotto has a fight coming up next month against Ricardo Mayorga on March 12th. That fight could end up being a bloody one for Cotto. It would be a big ask for Cotto to hurry up and get ready for Margarito coming off that fight.

Margarito lost his last fight against Manny Pacquiao last November in a 12 round beat down decision loss. The fight was a costly one for the 32-year-old Margarito, as he suffered a fractured right orbital bone, which required surgery to repair it. But beyond that, Margarito took an enormous amount of punishment in that fight in the way of head shots. His trainer or the referee should have stepped in and stopped the fight when it became obvious that Margarito didn’t even have a puncher’s chance of beating Pacquiao. It was a mismatch on paper before the fight, and sure enough, the Pacquiao-Margarito fight turned into an ugly route after the 6th round.

With the kind of beating that Margarito suffered against Pacquiao, he really needs at least one tune-up to see where he’s at physically and mentally from that defeat. If Margarito doesn’t care about winning the fight, then by all means he should go ahead and fight Cotto straightaway and forget about a tune-up. I think that would be an incredibly stupid thing to do, but if Margarito doesn’t care about taking a tune-up, that’s on him.