Antonio Margarito

By Thomas Hanson: WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) fell completely apart in the second half of Saturday’s bout with Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) ending up getting stopped in the 11th round after taking a knee on two separate occasions in the round. It wasn’t the best way for a fighter as proud as Cotto to be taken out, especially since he went down the second time without even getting hit by Margarito. In fact, it seemed that Cotto went down more out of fear of what Margarito might do to him rather than what he did do.

What hurt perhaps even worse than that, however, is that Cotto was thought to be the best fighter in all of boxing going into the fight with Margarito, and was picked by most fans and experts to easily defeat Margarito. Being one of the few that actually saw Cotto for all his weaknesses, it’s hard not to gloat now. if the fans and boxing writers had done even a little bit of research into Cotto’s past fights, they would have seen that he barely beat a faded Shane Mosley, who appeared to have fought Cotto to a virtual standstill in the bout. All one has to do is take a quick view of the fight and fast forward to the last three rounds of the fight when a very tired and worried looking Cotto ran for his life to preserve his victory over Mosley.

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By Aaron Klein: After watching last night’s 11th round TKO win for Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) over WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, I’m thinking that an immediate rematch is needed to allow for Cotto to avenge his defeat. While I concede that Margarito did a good job of breaking down Cotto slowly over the course of the fight to eventually stop him, I doubt think the best man won on Saturday night. I mean, Cotto seemed to give away the fight more than it being a case of him being beaten by Margarito, who was being outclassed for most of the fight until the 10th round when he hurt Cotto in the last 10 seconds of the round with a series of hooks to the head.

Instead of clinching Margarito often, like most good fighters like Wladimir Klitschko and Bernard Hopkins do to slow down aggressive fighters, Cotto instead elected to run and trade punches with Margarito. The running was less dangerous for him, to be sure, but it had the effect of wearing Cotto down much earlier than he would have been if he had just elected to clinch like most fighters would if put in a similar circumstance. The thing of it is, I knew Cotto wouldn’t clinch, and I bet Margarito knew it as well from having viewed most of Cotto’s fights, because he seems to really dislike being clinched, treating fighters that do that with bitter disdain.

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By Manuel Perez: Sometimes speed and boxing skill are meaningless in a fight. This was never more apparent than tonight when Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) using a relentless offensive attack took apart previously undefeated Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) in a methodical beating, ultimately ending when the bloody and battered Cotto was dropped twice in the 11th round from big shots from Margarito. For all the boxing fans and so-called experts that picked Cotto to win, they seemed to overlook a lot of the advantages that Margarito had going into the fight, starting with his enormous work rate and excellent chin.

Indeed, it seemed painfully obvious to me going to the fight that if Cotto couldn’t hurt the steel-chinned Margarito, then he would be in for a tough time in the second half of the fight when Cotto often times tires out. Margarito made his fatigue that much quicker by constantly battering him with 100 punches per rounds, never for once letting up on Cotto for an instant in any of the rounds.

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By Jason Kim: Using an early body attack, Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) took the wind out of WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto’s (32-1, 26 KOs) sails, stopping him in the 11th round of a scheduled 12-round bout tonight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto, 27, led most of the way taking most of the early rounds of the fight with his faster hands and blistering counter punching. However, as if on key, Cotto tired out in the second half of the fight and began to take serious punishment at the hands of Margarito, who for his part just never stopped punching.

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By Manuel Perez: With the start of the Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) vs. Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) WBA welterweight title bout only a short while from now, I just wanted to get my last prediction in before it starts. Tonight will be Antonio Margarito’s coming out party for which he’ll finally get the notoriety that has eluded him this far in his boxing career. Margarito will take his high octane offense right at the teeth of Cotto’s defense, making him either stand and trade or go down under the constant fire from Margarito’s fists. If this were any other fighter but Margarito, I would say that this would be another easy night for the Puerto Rican Cotto, but it’s not.

Margarito is all wrong for him in style, a fighter that Cotto was destined to lose to when the fight was signed months ago. Cotto would never be able to beat a fighter like Margarito perhaps even if they fought a 100 times, because of Cotto’s lack of size, his lower punch output and his inability to hurt a fighter with a chin as powerful as Margarito.

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By Thomas Hanson: WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) faces his toughest opponent of his boxing career against Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto, 27, has been portrayed by most fans and writers as the perfect fighter on earth, a young talent without any defects whatsoever and almost destined to stay unbeaten for his entire career. As most Cotto fans would tell it, he’s going to make easy work of Margarito, who stands no chance against Cotto. I’m not sure if what they say is correct, since Cotto hasn’t exactly impressed in fights against Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Oktay Urkal, Paul Malignaggi, Mohamad Abdulaev and DeMarcus Corley.

Cotto did enough to get wins out of every bout, but he didn’t look like the phenom that most boxing fans are making him out to be. To me, he looked good, but not a fighter in the class of a young Sugar Ray Leonard or Tommy Hearns, both of whom I could see beating Cotto with little problems due to his lack of hand speed, movement and one-punch knockout power. This brings us to Cotto’s bout with Margarito on Saturday night. Cotto is going against an opponent in Margarito who has a chin clearly much better than him, and who has a work rate which is twice the level of his. This means that Cotto is going to have to find another way to win if his attempt at scoring a knockout doesn’t happen.

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By Jason Kim: For the past week, most of the boxing public have quickly taken sides with one fighter or the other with most of the backing WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) to retain his title with a victory over Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) this Saturday night at the at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, as much as I’ve tried to see what the other people are concentrating on to make such a choice, I just can’t see it happening that way. I like Cotto as a fighter because he’s very entertaining, much more so than Floyd Mayweather Jr., who much to my relief he retired recently from boxing.

However, Cotto is really more of a small welterweight and has benefited by facing either shot welterweights or ones that are also small like himself. The beating of these lower quality fighters have helped build up the mystique of Cotto, making him seem virtually unbeatable in the minds of many boxing fans. However, with a clear view of the situation, the fans seem to be using poor judgment in choosing Cotto because he’s still unproven as a fighter and as welterweight despite his glamorous 32-0 record. In effect, you can completely throw out his entire record because every one of his fights have been meaningless in helping him prepare for this Saturday’s fight with Margarito.

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By Manuel Perez: As the saying goes, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” That may be even more true in terms of this Saturday night’s bout between challenger Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) and WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. By an avalanche of opinion, most boxing fans, betters and writers are choosing Cotto, 27, to defeat Margarito. The reason for their choice is varied, having to do mostly with Cotto’s recent development of boxing skills – a jab, better movement and the use of strategy rather than his old style of slugging – as the primary reason why they feel that Cotto will defeat Margarito.

Most of them doubt that Cotto can even come close to matching Margarito punch for punch, but they seem to feel that Cotto will be able to keep from getting hit enough to win the fight by a decision or possibly a knockout. The general consensus is that Cotto won’t be able to hurt Margarito with a shot to the head, and will have to focus on landing a hard body shot in order to drop or take out Margarito.

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By Chris Williams: Welterweight Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) will be bringing it this Saturday night against Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs), hoping to take away his WBA welterweight crown and in the process removing the aura that surrounds Cotto and makes him seem unbeatable. It is doubtful that Margarito, 30, really knows what’s in store for him this Saturday against Cotto. He may have heard the hype, seen him fight a few times, but it’s going to be a whole different matter to have to actually go in the ring and face him. Cotto isn’t unbeatable, however, because he’s sometimes hurt in his fights, although never serious enough for him to lose. Looking back on his past fights, he’s done well to get by the bigger punchers he’s faced like Ricardo Torres, whom he was badly hurt against but recovered to eventually stop in the 7th round. Since moving up from the light welterweight division in

Up until this point in his seven-year boxing career, undefeated WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) has had the physical and offensive advantages over every one of his opponents, but this Saturday Cotto will finally meet a fighter in December 2006, Cotto has done well, defeating several good fighters in Zab Judah, Shane Mosley and Alfonso Gomez, and only getting stunned for a moment in his fight with Judah in June 2007.

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By Dan Ambrose: Up until this point in his seven-year boxing career, undefeated WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) has had the physical and offensive advantages over every one of his opponents, but this Saturday Cotto will finally meet a fighter in Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) is superior to Cotto in every possible way – work rate, size, reach, chin and experience – with the exception of youth and power. There are a lot of things working against the young 27 year-old Cotto going into this bout, and regardless of the things that he’s accomplished up until now in beating mostly lesser fighters or fighters considered over the hill, it may do little to prepare him for what Margarito will be bringing to the ring on Saturday night.

Size: The size alone, with Margarito towering over Cotto by four inches and with a reach advantage of half a foot, will be huge obstacle for Cotto to get past. However, the height advantage might be minimized because Margarito tends to stand in close and loop many of his punches, not using his reach to his full benefit. But, when Margarito does choose to fight on the outside, Cotto, a fighter who tends to fight mostly on the inside, will likely find that he’s unable to get his big body shots nor land his excellent jab.

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