Miguel Cotto vs Antonio Margarito

This could very well have been fight of the year had one of the greatest fights of all-time (in this writers opinion anyway) already happened earlier in the year. I don’t think anything will top the third fight between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez. The best any fight will do is come a close second to that amazing fight. Honestly, that fight is up there among my all-time greatest fights list and if you haven’t seen it you need to do so.

Before I get into this fight, I’m going to have an obligatory bitch about the sanctioning bodies, this is just a warning in case you want to skip to the next paragraph. Why the fuck did the IBF strip Antonio Margarito of his title for fighting the best welterweight in the World? When a fighter of Mayweathers stature retires, you need the top guys fighting and unifying the titles. It takes a lot of credibility away in the eyes of the uneducated fans when the winner of this fight walks away with just one of the major titles and some other lesser fighter pops up and takes the title that rightfully belongs to the winner of the unification bout, and then starts claiming they’re a world champion. It’s just so retarded and petty that these idiots who run the sanctioning bodies can’t get along for the greater good (that being making boxing a more credible sport). As long as boxing keeps this way, it won’t ever come close to reaching the heights it once reached.

Enough politics, onto the fight. This should be a war, both guys like to throw punches and both guys like to do it for 12 rounds. I give both the edge in power and durability to Antonio Margarito, but I give a big edge in boxing ability to Miguel Cotto. In the past Cotto has looked shaky when he takes a good shot on the chin, well in this fight he’ll be up against the hardest puncher he’s ever faced. Margarito has murderous power and if he lands solidly on Cotto, especially early in the fight before Cotto adjusts to his power, he could win this fight by knockout. In saying that though, Cotto’s shaky chin could very well be down to the enormous amount of weight he used to have to sweat out in order to make 140lbs, because since he moved to 147lbs he hasn’t had that problem. He also hasn’t faced someone of Margaritos power.

Margarito has a granite chin, and I think Cotto will have to break him down if he’s to win this fight inside the 12 rounds. The only other fighter out there who can break a man down like Cotto in my opinion is Kelly Pavlik. Cotto is the quintessential pressure fighter, as he seems to get stronger as the fight goes on. His body shots just kill people and he doesn’t let up his pace throughout the 12 rounds. I give the edge in stamina to Cotto and I think the longer this fight goes on, the less chance Margarito has of finding the punches to put Cotto away. Margarito has good stamina as well, but he seems to struggle with the pace more against Cotto-esque opponents then he does with movers like Paul Williams. The way Cotto works the body and the pace he fights at, Margarito will have trouble keeping up as the fight gets into the later rounds.

There’s really two extremes in this fight in terms of which way it will go. Either Margarito will catch Cotto cold in the first 4-6 (at most eight) rounds before he’s adjusted to Margaritos power, or Cotto will break him down and punish him in the later rounds to either take a hard fought points decision or score a late stoppage (sometime after the 6th round). I can’t see Margarito being able to handle Cotto in the later rounds unless he lays down an almighty beating early on (which I can’t see Cotto being able to stand up to) that renders him useless in the later rounds. I also can’t see Cotto being able to take a fresh Margarito out early in the fight, Margarito is as tough as they come and he’ll take a beating before he goes down. My prediction- Cotto to win by 11th round stoppage, although I have a funny feeling that Margarito will chin him in the 5th.