By Dan Ambrose: WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KO’s) and challenger Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KO’s) will be fighting at a catchweight of 153 pounds for their December 3rd rematch at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Cotto,30, had been pushing for a catchweight of 150 lbs, which seems incredibly funny given that he’s already fought twice at junior middleweight at the full 154 pound weight against fellow Top Rank fighter Yuri Foreman and 38-year-old Ricardo Mayorga.

There’s no word whether Cotto still wants the 160 pound cap the morning of the fight. That was something that Cotto also wanted in addition to the 150 pound catchweight. Together, they likely would have left Margarito a drained fighter by the time he stepped into the ring on December 3rd. As it is, the 153 pound catchweight is pretty much useless and not even worth having. But perhaps Cotto is hoping to get any edge he can in this fight even if it’s a small one of only one pound.

Cotto was stopped in teh 11th round three years ago by a younger more energetic Margarito. Now both fighters have faded significantly. Cotto is still winning, albeit against carefully matched opposition. Cotto hasn’t taken on a dangerous opponent since being stopped in the 12th round two years ago by Manny Pacquiao. In his last fight Cotto looked terrible at times against the 38-year-old Mayorga.

With all the other top junior middleweight contenders that Cotto could have fought, such as Vanes Martirosyan and Alfredo Angulo, it was another disappointment to see Cotto fighting an old guy like Mayorga instead of guys that are a real threat to him. By fighting the depleted Margarito, who has looked terrible since losing to Shane Mosley in 2009, Cotto is taking another fairly safe fight. Margarito is slower, older, doesn’t seem to punch with the same power he once did and his work rate has dropped off significantly.