I was all ready to dedicate this Monday Rant to a career post-mortem examination of a Miguel Cotto once again beaten into submission by the Tijuana Sewer Rat, Antonio Margarito.
But Cotto had enough mojo, Margarito was light on the plaster, and/or Manny Pacquiao?s eye-busting assist gave the Boricua star enough juice to come away with the win.
Honestly, as much as I?d love to say that Cotto?s win proves that he is the better fighter and greater human being, there were a lot of extenuating circumstances that kinda, sorta diminished the importance and significance of the win.
Who knows what would?ve happened if Margarito had nine more minutes or, for that matter, what the fight would?ve looked like had his right eye been 100% healthy. But you could also say the same thing about their first fight back in 2008? What would that fight have looked like without the cement in the gloves?
In any case, now that Cotto has exercised one of his big, dumb, annoyingly smug demons, it?s time to perform a complete purification. It?s time to ditch Top Rank and Bob Arum.
I?ve been racking my brain, trying to remember a time when such a major fighter has been treated so poorly by his own promotional team.
In these last few years, the disrespect tossed at Cotto has been a lesson for all those ?good soldiers? in the sport who tow the company line and keep their mouth shut.
The first ?dis? came following Cotto?s 2008 brutal beatdown at the hands of Antonio Margarito.
As everyone knows, Margarito was found to be sporting knuckle pads coated with a ?plaster-like? substance in his hand wraps prior to his 2009 bout with Shane Mosley. When people put two and two together, many put a big question mark over all of Margarito?s wins, most notably his brutal destruction of Miguel Cotto and the grotesque manner in which he battered Cotto?s face.
Top Rank honcho and alleged member of Team Cotto, Bob Arum, spent most of the ?Plaster Gate? scandal defending Margarito and denying the loaded wrap claims?at the expense of the feelings of the possible/probable victim, Miguel Cotto.
