Boxing: Cotto vs. Margarito

cotto457346.jpgBy Aaron Klein: In easily the biggest, toughest fight of his short boxing career WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) will be putting both his unbeaten record and title on the line against the punching machine Mexican Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) this Saturday night in a 12-round bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cotto, 27, a former light welterweight, is going up against one of the biggest welterweights he’s faced since moving up to the division in December 2006. Up to this point, Cotto has faced mostly smaller, less offensively skillful welterweights than Margarito, ones that he could either out-slug or out-out-punch on the inside.

However, he may need to find a new way to win if he plans on being successful against Margarito, who appears to be a level or two above the competition that Cotto has faced thus far since moving up to the welterweight division. That’s not a knock on fighters like Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Oktay Urkal, Carlos Quintana or Alfonso Gomez, because each of them are good fighters, but as far as being in the same class as Margarito, they’re clearly not.

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Cotto vs. Margarito Failing To Generate Interest

cotto424222.jpgBy Manuel Perez: With the welterweight showdown between WBA champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) and challenger Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) only a week and half away, both the ticket sales and fans interest don’t appear to be there. The fight, which will be held at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, seems to be a poor location for the bout, being away from the East Coast, the area where Cotto’s huge Puerto Rican fan base is located, and California, perhaps where Margarito’s biggest fans come from.

Even with the fight being held in either of those two locations, however, it would be a fight that would still lack interest among the more casual of boxing fans, for few of them have ever heard of either of these two fighters. Though both of them have been around for a little while, for whatever reason neither of them are all that well known outside of the main boxing circles. If you doubt what I say, I suggest you speak to several people at your work or at school, and ask them if they’ve ever heard of Cotto or Margarito. I’d be willing to bet 9 times out of 10, few people have heard of either. Now, if you were to ask the same people if they’d ever heard of Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather, most of them would probably say they had, especially with De La Hoya, a crossover star.

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Miguel Cotto – Antonio Margarito: Is Miguel Too Small To Compete With Antonio?

cotto4643522.jpgBy Manuel Perez: WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) easily faces the toughest fight of his seven year professional boxing career on July 26th against tough Mexican Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, as much success as Cotto has found in boxing career in which he’s beaten fighters like Shane Mosley (albeit by a controversial 12-round decision), Alfonso Gomez, Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah, Ricardo Torres, and Carlos Quintana, none of those fighters are in the same class as Margarito. This is the problem for Cotto, who is shorter by four inches than the 5’11” Margarito, and is also giving up six inches in reach to the Mexican.

This means that Cotto will be forced to try and make it an inside fight if he has any hope of winning the fight, and even under those circumstances, Cotto will have to pray that he can somehow hurt Margarito and take him out. Margarito is far too busy for Cotto to beat him by a 12-round decision unless he’s able to knock him down two or three times in the process. One knockdown likely won’t be enough to beat Margarito, because he’ll be unloading on Cotto with many more punches per round and will likely have a huge advantage in overall punches landed in every round of the fight.

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Antonio Margarito vs. Miguel Cotto: Can Miguel Stand Up To Antonio’s High Volume Offense?

margarito453455756.jpgBy Manuel Perez: In a recent interview, Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) made the outlandish prediction that he’d “knock Cotto out in 4,” which if you were to believe Margarito’s boast, it would seem to indicate that he plans on rolling over Cotto in a quick fashion. Knowing Margarito, he probably believes in just what he says, because he often makes predictions of this kind, telling the interviewer exactly what he’s going to do in a fight. He then goes out and does just what he said he was going to do.

I guess there’s no real mystery about what Margarito plans on doing in his July 26th title at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Margarito will do what he always does, namely to go directly after Cotto and try to bury him with punches, and take him out as fast as he can. If this were another fighter, someone like Paul Williams, for example, I’d doubt that Margarito could carry it off. However, in this case, I think he actually has the ammunition to make it happen. Cotto hasn’t ever fought a fighter with the same offensive capabilities as Margarito in terms of, size, power, chin and punch volume.

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Cotto vs. Margarito: To Settle Who’s The #2 Welterweight, Behind Mayweather

cotto4635335.jpgBy Manuel Perez: It isn’t often that boxing fans get to see a match-up as important or potentially as exciting as the July 26th title bout between unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) and challenger Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Though both fighters like to say that this bout will decide which fighter is the number # 1 welterweight in the division, it’s clear to most boxing experts that WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still the number one guy in the division no matter who comes out the winner between Cotto and Margarito.

The problem with Mayweather, however, is that he’s not likely to fight Cotto or Margarito any time soon, if ever. That, sadly, leaves it to the fans and boxing writers to decide among themselves who the real number one fighter is in the division. At this point, it’s still Mayweather, as he still looks to be a level above Cotto or Margarito in terms of skills. That’s likely to change, though, in the next year or so, especially if Mayweather fails to take on anyone other than Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

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Cotto-Margarito: Will Antonio Give Up His IBF Belt?

margarito982.jpgBy Nate Anderson: After waiting for eons for WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) to show any interest in fighting Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs), it finally looks as if it’s about to come about after Antonio’s 6th round destruction of IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron. Both fighters are looking for the fight to occur on January 26th, at Madison Square Garden, in New York. However, before it can happen, Margarito, 30, may have to defend his newly won title against the #1 challenger in the IBF, Joshua Clottey. Margarito is no stranger to Clottey, having struggled to beat him by a 12-round unanimous decision in December 2006.

Obviously, this is a fight that Maragarito would prefer not to have to fight if at all possible. Clottey fought him very closely, especially in the first half of the fight where he was beating Margarito and making him look slow. According to the latest news, promoter Bob Arum is counting on Margarito giving up his IBF belt so that he could fight Cotto for his WBA welterweight belt. In doing so, Margarito could avoid what would likely be a very tough fight with Clottey, one in which there would be no guarantee of certainty that he would emerge the victor or uninjured, for that matter.

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Cintron-Margarito, Cotto-Gomez This Saturday

cintron7652.jpgBy Nate Anderson: This Saturday, unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KOs), will defend his title against former star from The Contender reality television show Alfonso Gomez (18-3-2, 8 KOs) at the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey. On the other card, IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs), will be defending his title against his former conqueror Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs), who stopped him in a 5th round TKO in April 2005.

Most fans are eager to see both fights, in particular the Cotto-Gomez fight, although that fight figures to be more of a one-sided fight given the talent gulf separating the undefeated Cotto and Gomez. However, anything is possible as Gomez, 27, is fighting at the best in his short career and is capable of pulling off an upset unless Cotto gives it his best effort on Saturday. Ranked #9 overall in the IBF, Gomez is coming off of wins over Ben Tackie and Arturo Gatti. The win over Gatti was particularly impressive in that he stopped him in the 7th in 2007, a fight that Gatti was never in regards to fighting competitively.

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Cintron vs. Margarito On April 26th

cintron4646444.jpgIn an act of either pure bravery or a sign of confused thinking, International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) has reportedly signed to fight a rematch with his former conqueror Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs) on April 26th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Apparently, the winner of the bout will possibly meeting up with Miguel Cotto, after he finishes destroying Alfonso Gomez on April 12th.

Cintron, 28, seems to have made a big mistake in opting to fight the 29 year-old Margarito, as he was previously destroyed by Margarito in a 5th round TKO in April 2005, a bout in which Cintron was knocked down four times in the process of losing the fight. After the first three rounds, the fight was no longer competitive, as Cintron didn’t have the punch output to match Margarito, and found himself getting hurt repeatedly by Margarito’s powerful hooks to the body and head. Cintron’s defense was poor, allowing Margarito to shoot through his guard with shots to the head.

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Is Cintron Making A Mistake In Fighting Margarito?

cintron464343.jpgIn the past week, International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) has publically called out Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs), saying that he wants to fight him as soon as possible, apparently a move made to attempt to erase the previous stain of defeat for Cintron. Two years earlier, in April 2005, Cintron, 28, was stopped in five brutal rounds by Margarito, a bout in which Cintron was knocked down four times before the fight was finally stopped at 2:12 of the 5th round.

I personally don’t see how the fight will be any different than the first time because Cintron doesn’t have an answer for Margarito’s high volume punch output. While Cintron is the harder puncher of the two, he tends to be much more selective of his punches, loading up for an occasional huge shot, whereas Margarito throws a steady volume of hard shots which make it difficult on his opponents. Cintron showed that he couldn’t deal with that kind of fire power from Margarito and quickly succumbed to Margarito’s constant raining punches. It didn’t matter that Cintron hit harder, because Margarito proved to be able to take his punches without much problem.

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Cintron Wants Rematch With Margarito

margarito45345575.jpgOnce beaten International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) made it public yesterday his desire to meet up with Antonio Margarito as soon as possible to get revenge for his previous defeat to him, a one-sided 5th round TKO loss in April 2005.

Apparently, Cintron, 28, feels that he wasn’t ready last time out against Margarito, saying “I was coming off a 9 month layoff, hand surgery, and had only 4 weeks to prepare. I’m not going to make any more excuses, but I know that fight was a fluke. When I fight Margarito again, the fight will once again end in a knockout. Only this time, it will be Margarito lying on the canvas.”

What Cintron fails to remember, however, is that he was out-gunned in virtually every second of the bout, lacking both the handspeed and the punching output to contend with Margarito.

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