Mexico reacts after his fight against Cotto of Puerto Rico was stopped due to an injury, in their WBA World Junior Middleweight championship boxing match in New York" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ardKgb9srNE9vJEuM9hgiw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNjA7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-12-04T064755Z_629124572_GM1E7C4156301_RTRMADP_3_BOXING.JPG" alt="Margarito of Mexico reacts after his fight against Cotto of Puerto Rico was stopped due to an injury, in their WBA World Junior Middleweight championship boxing match in New York" width="441" height="358" />
COTTO SCORES A TKO OVER MARGARITO IN THE 10TH
By: FRANK RIVERA
Dec 4, 2011
Tonight in Madison Square Garden Miguel Cotto (37-2-0, 30 KO’s) faced his rival Antonio Margarito (38-8-0, 27 KO’s) for the WBA Super Welterweight Championship. There is no doubt that there is bad blood between these two combatants and you sensed it as the fight drew closer. At the final press conference you could really sense the animosity Cotto really had for Margarito. The tension between the two fighters was so intense, that they did not take the typical face off photo shoot at the end of the press conference. The fight that many boxing fans have been looking forward too did not disappoint.
Cotto started the fight as I predicted, boxing Margarito and constantly moving. He was using his jab nicely, while displaying outstanding footwork, moving laterally and avoiding most of Margarito’s body shots . Margarito would try to pressure Cotto and tried to lure him into a brawl, but Cotto did not fall into Margarito’s trap. Cotto moved laterally and stayed off the ropes and would clinch Margarito each time he came inside. As they were clinched, he would also push Margarito back and sometimes wrestle him onto the ropes, which is something that he failed do in their first fight. Cotto would use his speed to throw his combinations to the body and to the head and continued targeting the right eye like he said he would.
Cotto effectively out boxed Margarito for nine rounds, backpedaling and staying on his toes by moving laterally avoiding Margarito’s attempts to pin him on the ropes or trap Cotto in the corner. Cotto was able to connect with a multitude of combinations and power shots, 86 of which landed on Margarito’s right eye. The same eye that was surgically rebuilt following heavy damage inflicted by Manny Pacquiao 13 months ago.
At the end of the 8th round the ring doctor took a look at Margarito’s eye and at this point many thought the fight would be stopped. His eye was very swollen, but the doctor allowed the fight to continue. In the 9th round, Margarito started to apply more pressure on Cotto, sensing that the doctor might stop the fight because of his eye. Margarito was doing a good job at closing the distance, but was also leaving himself exposed for Cotto to counter and jab causing more damage to the right eye. Margarito was working the inside more with uppercuts trying to avoid the counter, but was unable to keep the mobile Cotto to stay in one place long enough for him to cause any damage. At the end of the 9th round, the ring doctor took a look at Margarito’s eye and felt that the fight needed to be stopped so Smoger, on the advice of ringside doctor Barry Jordan, had seen enough. Margarito’s and his corner were pleading their case for one more round, but their request was denied.
“Dr. Jordan said that the eye was completely shut and that we couldn’t go on. Eventually, I concurred with Dr. Jordan. We were waiting a little bit based on urging of the corner wanting to continue the fight. But I prevailed,” said Smoger.
“The corner was begging for another round. Dr. Jordan said that the eye was completely shut, so he couldn’t see out, and I couldn’t see in. The corner wanted to go on, but we have a rule in the state of New York that says that if you can’t see out of the eye, you have to stop the fight.”
At the end Cotto was able to out-landed Margarito, 210-157 total punch ,and 148-131 in power punches. He landed more jabs, 62-26, than Margarito was able to land.
On November 25th, I wrote an article (http://realcombatmedia.com/2011/11/25/miguel-cotto-antonio-margarito-2-la-batalla-battle/) predicting the outcome for this fight. In the article I talked about how Margarito’s right eye could become a factor in the fight. If Cotto were to target the eye and used his jab early, it would setup Cotto’s left hook and cause damage to Margarito’s right eye. Tonight we saw just that, Cotto targeted the eye, used the left hook and jab to close the eye and causing the ring doctor to stop the fight.
I can honestly say that this fight does not prove whether Margarito used plaster in their first fight. We may never know the real answer to that question. We do have to take into account that Margarito was NOT at 100% due to the injured eye. Can the fans speculate if Margarito did or did not use plaster, sure, but I will leave that up to you the readers to discuss. We do not want to speculate what is next for Cotto, but we will report the news as soon as we find out what is Cotto’s next move.
Follow Boxing Writer Frank Rivera on Twitter @frankrivera25 or @realcombatmedia
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