By Dan Ambrose: Antonio Margarito feels that he was cheated by the stoppage by the ringside doctor in the 10th round tonight against World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. The doctor halted the fight due to the swelling in Margarito’s right eye.

However, Margarito was coming on at the time of the stoppage and Cotto was beginning to wear down just like he did in their first fight back in July 2008.

Margarito said after the fight “I asked for at least one more round, they wouldn’t give it to me. I felt like this was a continuation of the first fight. The last few rounds were going to be mine.“

I can’t rule out what Margarito is saying, because he was coming on and Cotto was starting to take punishment and look exhausted. The ringside doctor did do Cotto a huge favor by putting a stop to the fight. What I don’t understand is why the doctor stopped the Margarito-Cotto fight, but let John Murray fight it out with even worse facial problems in his 11th round TKO loss to Brandon Rios tonight. Since he Margarito-Cotto fight was the main event, the doctor should have at least given Margarito another one or two more rounds to see if he could pull out a victory.

Cotto got his revenge but the win really doesn’t what Margarito accomplished in 2008. There wasn’t a doctor to step in during that fight to mess things up. Margarito tore Cotto apart, and he may have had his chance of doing that a second time taken away from him by the ringside doctor.

At any rate, the two fighters go their separate way now. I can’t see Margarito fighting for too much longer, as he’s starting to lose his skills and his eye problem will likely continue to be an issue for him in future fights. Cotto has done well with the soft match making his promoter has set him up with since his loss to Manny Pacquiao.

However, Cotto can’t be steered around quality fighters forever. He eventually is going to have to fight a younger fighter with talent and a high ranking or else he’ll have to vacate or have his title stripped from him. I wouldn’t put it past his promoter of having Cotto vacate his title when he’s eventually forced to fight someone that has a pretty good chance of beating him.