WBA super welterweight champion Miguel Cotto is fighting Antonio Margarito on Saturday night at New York City’s Madison Square Garden (9 p.m. ET, HBO PPV, $54.99).
The fight is the long-anticipated rematch of their memorable 2008 slugfest, when Margarito won Cotto’s WBA welterweight title on an 11th-round TKO. But the legitimacy of Margarito’s victory was thrown into question when he was caught attempting to use loaded gloves ahead of his subsequent fight with Shane Mosley, an offense that led to a supension, universal condemnation and nearly a year-and-a-half of inactivity.
Since they last met, both Cotto and Margarito have suffered lopsided defeats to Manny Pacquiao, with Margarito needing surgery to repair a fractured orbital bone. The injury led to complications with his licensing that nearly forced Saturday’s fight out of New York.
Background
Cotto was an undefeated welterweight champion and 2-to-1 favorite when he first met Margarito in July 2008. But after outboxing the Mexican challenger early, Cotto was overwhelmed by Margarito’s pressure in the later rounds. Bloodied and bruised in stomach-turning fashion, Cotto finally surrendered on knee in the 11th. Margarito was the new 147-pound champion and tabbed as boxing’s newest superstar.
Then it all unraveled, quite literally, when Margarito was caught trying to enter the ring for his next fight against Shane Mosley with a plaster-like substance on his hand wraps. The fight proceeded with Margarito’s hands rewrapped legally — he suffered a shock upset loss to Mosley by ninth-round knockout — but Margarito was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission and didn’t fight for 16 months. For his part, Margarito blamed then-trainer Javier Capetillo for doctoring the wraps without his knowledge.
Though it’s never been proven that Margarito used loaded gloves in the Cotto fight, the presumption is widespread given the gruesome beating absorbed by the Puerto Rican. Cotto feels cheated by Margarito and is out to avenge the malfeasance, while Margarito wants to remove whatever sense of doubt hangs over his previous win against Cotto.
Cotto has rebuilt nicely since his 2009 loss to Pacquiao, winning the WBA’s 154-pound title from Yuri Foreman at Yankee Stadium last year and defending it with a 12th-round stoppage of Ricardo Mayorga in March. Meanwhile, Margarito is back in action for the first time since the Pacquiao fight, a loss that many think should have ended his career.
