by Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: First, I want to congratulate Miguel Cotto on his title defense over Ricardo Mayorga. Although the prediction of a 4th round stoppage was wrong, none the less it was a good fight. But before this fight took place, there had been an out cry of a rematch with Antonio Margarito. Margarito stopped Cotto in their 2008 battle bloodying his face along the way. I watched the fight one time and then I watched it again. And I can honestly say that the possible of plaster in Margarito’s gloves made no major difference in the fight. So rather than drag this thing out let me cut right to the chase.

Cotto is with Emmanuel Steward and it has made a difference. But should the rematch take place against Margarito, and Cotto chooses to display all offense and very little defense, the results of him getting stopped will be the same. In their first match, Cotto put up some excellent punching numbers according to compu box. In the first round alone, he landed 32 of 70 punches (46%). His percentage hovered around the forty percent and above mark all of but three rounds for the entire fight. It’s also notable to mention that Cotto was smaller than Margarito and he was still able to land at will. So what doomed Cotto you ask?

It was his lack of defense and footwork. I’m pretty sure Cotto knew Margarito’s fighting style like the rest of the boxing world did; plow forward, no head movement; no defense; throwing punches all the time, and slow. Still he was able to landed 37% of his punches and that’s a high percentage on the Marg-o-meter. Cotto could have side step, dipped in and out, and used his lateral movement to avoid some of those crushing blows. This is how Pac was able to beat both Cotto and Margs; with speed, movement, and footwork.

FT: Margarito could have had a jack hammer in his gloves, but what good would it have done him had Cotto had some defense? If Cotto was trying to prove he could take a punch then he failed miserably. I’m sure a rematch will ensue. His approach might be a little different with Steward in his corner. But Steward can’t fight for him. If Cotto choose to focus more on offense and sacrifice his defense, Steward or no Steward, the results will be the same. The plus side for Cotto is that Margs has been damaged mentally since his defeat against Mosley.