By Dan Ambrose: Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KO’s) intends on changing the minds of boxing fans about whether he wore loaded handwraps in his previous fight against Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KO’s) by whipping him on December 3rd in their rematch at the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Margarito said this in an interview at fighthype.com “I’ve always fought clean. I’m going to show in this fight against Cotto. After I beat him, everybody is going to see that, but everybody has a right to an opinion.”

Margarito was caught with loaded hand wraps before his fight against Shane Mosley in January 2009. Margarito subsequently was suspended from boxing for over a year until his promoter Bob Arum shopped around and found a state, Texas, that was willing to renew Margarito’s license.

Margarito has since fought Manny Pacquiao last year and took a horrendous beating in a 12 round decision loss that left Margarito with a cracked right orbital bone and damage to his right eye that required multiple surgeries to repair.

Margarito has since been cleared to fight and will be in the ring for the first time since then against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in a fight that will be fought at a catchweight of 153 lbs. Cotto originally wanted a catchweight of 150 lbs, but gave in to the pressure from Margarito’s management to change it to only 153, one pound under the 154 pound junior middleweight limit. Margarito doesn’t understand Cotto’s reasoning for the catchweight, saying that if he’s not willing to fight at the full weight he needs to go back down to the welterweight class.

Even before Margarito’s injuries from the Pacquiao fight, he took a lot of punishment in his previous fight against Cotto and only really control of the fight in the 10th round. Before that, Cotto did a great job of out-boxing with movement and hit and run attacks. However, the constant movement took it’s toll on Cotto, leaving him with little energy by the 10th.