Pacquiao-Marquez & Margarito-Cotto ready to end the year in style

By Boxing News - 06/15/2011 - Comments

By Peter Wells: In the final months of this year there are two fights that promise fireworks and both have chapters not quite finished. After an uneventful fight in May Manny Pacquiao started to understand that fans will still boo a fighter no matter how popular they are. But his next assignment rarely has a dull fight and the last two fights between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez were crackers and were highly controversial.

The first fight ended in a draw which despite Marquez doing his very best to come back from 3 first round knockdowns many felt (myself included) that Pacquiao deserved the victory. The second was another close battle and despite Manny winning via slit decision i felt that maybe a draw would have been a fair result while many including Marquez felt the Mexican deserved the victory.

This fight though will be contested at 144lbs which unfortunately makes one believe that Marquez will be outgunned at this weight while 140 would have been a better choice. Though i fully expect Marquez to give Manny a much needed test i just can’t see him being as effective as he was in the other fights at lower weight classes. While Manny has grown Marquez is still a Lightweight fighter and anything above the Light Welter division is a bit too far. Unfortunately for me this has ruined the excitement a little bit but i still envision an amazing fight and a great way to get the fans back on their feet at a Manny Pacquiao fight.

But after that another fight that still hasn’t been sorted out is finally looking on after the fight was delayed from its original date due to damage to Margarito’s eye from the Pacquiao fight. Now after their highly exciting thriller in 2008, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are ready to do battle once again.

The controversy surrounding this brutal fight started when Antonio was caught with illegal padding being wrapped under his hand wraps. This was spotted by the eyes of Nazzim Richardson before his fight with Shane Mosley. Then questions were asked to whether Margarito had used these illegal hand wraps before and maybe during the Cotto fight. If Miguel believes this to be true I’m sure he will seek revenge more than most as boxing can be dangerous enough without trying to make it worse.

Margarito may feel his career may be closer to ending than ever before after the beating he took from Pacquiao and Cotto seems rejuvenated at Light Middleweight. But fighters close to the end are always the most dangerous and that beating Cotto took nearly three years ago will still be very much on his mind. Cotto will most likely be more cautious but i expect the two to go to war in the later rounds and maybe another late stoppage could be the outcome. Who comes out on top, you decide, but I’m sure it’ll be fun.



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