By Dan Ambrose: Antonio Margarito feels that he could have kept fighting against WBA light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto if he was allowed to come out for the 10th. Unfortunately, Margarito was never given the chance because the ringside doctor stepped in and prevented Margarito from finishing the last three rounds of the fight. This prevented closure for both fighters and left it an unsatisfying result for all of those watched it.

Margarito had just fought his best round of the fight in the 9th and had hurt Cotto with a left hook early in the round.

Margarito said to RingTV “”I think that there were favoring Cotto a little bit, because of my eye was worse when I fought Pacquiao… We knew that coming to New York, something like this could happen. We feel that we could have done a little bit more in the next round.”

I don’t think the referee intentionally stopped it to save Cotto from getting knocked out, but I think it worked out as a move that ultimately may have saved Cotto from getting taken out in the last three. If you look at the 9th round, Cotto took a lot of punishment in that round and Margarito looked to be the stronger fighter.

Cotto’s face was badly marked up and we likely would have seen the bleeding start in the 10th, 11th 12th. With hurt early in the 9th, its likely Margarito would have hurt him again in the 10th and possibly finished him off. But by the referee stopping the fight and turning it into a nine-round fight instead of 12 rounder, he saved Cotto from a lot of punishment and also from gassing out like he did last time he fought Margarito. The doctor obviously didn’t set out to prevent Margarito from making history by stopping Cotto and second time, but I think in the end that’s what happened.

Cotto failed to prove that he’s a different fighter. He looked mentally about to crumble as he did in the first fight but the doctor’s decision kept it short fight, which was ideal for Cotto.

I think we’ll see Cotto having problems in his next fight against either Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. I see Cotto losing both fights.