Cotto gets his revenge
Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito came face to face at Madison Square Garden in New York last night to compete for the WBA super welterweight title, in a fight that was steeped in history and media hype.
Their first fight in 2008 ended with Cotto a beaten man, bloodied and broken as Margarito’s victory was shrouded in controversy due to illegal hand wrappings which earned him a one-year ban from the ring.
Never in the history of boxing have hand wrappings been more closely scrutinised than Margarito’s last night, so that when he stepped into the ring there could be no hint of foul play.
Cotto dominated from the bell, bobbing, weaving and bouncing on his toes, never still for a second and the Mexican chased him around the ring, getting caught by Cotto with stinging left hooks and jabs.
Margarito hardly landed a punch in the first five rounds with Cotto clearly winning every round on my scorecard.
In round three, as was expected, Cotto opened a cut on Margarito’s right eye and continued to work the eye from that moment on. There wasn’t a lot of blood but the eye closed more with each round.
Margarito finally woke up in round seven, to share the points and the ninth was his best round of the fight, taking the round 10-9 on my card.
The doctors at ringside had inspected that eye after round eight and looked concerned. Referee Stve Smoger allowed the fight to continue into the ninth and that was good news for Margarito as it was his best round, probably because he knew that unless he knocked Cotto out he was going to lose because of the eye.
At the end of the ninth the doctors again entered the ring to inspect the eye and told Steve that it was too bad to continue.The bell sounded for the 10th and much debating continued before referee called a halt to proceedings with Cotto winning by TKO in the 10th.
It was an unsatisfactory conclusion as I am sure that Cotto would have liked to have beaten Margarito fair and square without the eye, but it was a clear victory for the Puerto Rican who had won at least seven of the nine rounds, shared one and lost one.
It was sweet revenge for the brutal loss he suffered in 2008 and perhaps sets up Cotto/Margarito three next year. — David Blood, SportsCentral
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