LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) ? Unbeaten Miguel Cotto and rival world champion Antonio Margarito will meet here Saturday in a welterweight unification showdown for the division throne vacated by Floyd Mayweather Jnr.
Puerto Rican star Cotto, 32-0 with 26 knockouts, owns the World Boxing Association title while Mexico’s Margarito, 36-5 with 26 knockouts, holds the International Boxing Federation version of the crown.
Mayweather had been the World Boxing Council champion before retiring last month with a 39-0 record and 25 knockouts, leaving welterweight supremacy and pound-for-pound honors up for grabs.
Philippines star Manny Pacquiao, the WBC lightweight champion who has reigned in four weight classes, has made a solid case as the pound-for-pound ring king but Saturday’s winner here will certainly challenge the claim.
“If you give me the opportunity to put myself on the scale of boxers, I’m going to put Miguel Cotto at the highest level I can,” Cotto said.
“But my work is just to train and box. I’m just here to fight, to do my work the best I can.”
Cotto took the WBA crown from Carlos Quintana and dispatched talented foes Zab Judah and Shane Mosley while Mayweather ignored him in favor of big-money pay days with US star Oscar de la Hoya and Britain’s Ricky Hatton last year.
Margarito, 30, hopes to stake his claim as one of the top welterweights by inflicting the first defeat upon Cotto, 27.
“I’ve watched him fight. He has gotten better every year,” Margarito said. “He has turned into a very good fighter.”
Margarito sees himself as a more formidable challenger than Judah or Mosley.
“I have a lot more power and a bigger heart than both of those guys combined,” Margarito said. “I’m the type of fighter that throws a lot of punches and puts a lot of pressure on my opponent.
“My strength is my power and my stamina and my ability to be on top of him all the time.”
Veteran trainer Emmanuel Steward is impressed by Cotto’s ability to handle himself under pressure the likes of which Mayweather has seldom if ever seen.
“Floyd is the most talented welterweight in the world, but Cotto is the most admirable. He’s a guy who always finds a way to win,” Steward said.
“We’ve never seen Floyd in the kind of adversity we’ve seen Cotto in. What it tells you is that Cotto has a tremendous survival instinct.”
Cotto has found himself fitter at the 147-pound limit than he was trying to make weight at the junior welterweight level.
“The last two years for me have been wonderful,” Cotto said. “All the people who know boxing saw another Miguel Cotto – a Miguel Cotto who can put pressure on opponents, but also a Miguel Cotto who can box, who can move.
“When you do those kind of things, people know you are a complete fighter and that’s the kind of fighter they want to see.”
