Antonio Margarito started with the taunting early, at the opening bell, or thereabouts. The more Miguel Cotto landed fists on Margarito?s face, the more Margarito shook his head, the more he smiled, even as blood dripped from his right eye down his cheek.
Margarito continued in this way throughout his second fight with Cotto, in their rematch late Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Even as bruises colored the area around Margarito?s eye, even as it swelled until it eventually shut, he shook, and he smiled, as if he were winning the fight, as if he enjoyed the beating Cotto was administering.
If boxers won fights based on their reaction to taking punches, Margarito would have triumphed over Cotto, just as he did in 2008. Instead, he did little, if no, damage, and doctors determined the bout over, a technical knockout in the 10th round. Margarito appeared as if he wanted to continue, as he squinted through the good left eye and thumped his chest.
In victory, Cotto (37-2, now 30 knockouts) defended his World Boxing Association super welterweight title. This did little to settle the question of whether Margarito (38-8) cheated in their first meeting. But it did give Cotto a measure of revenge and bragging rights for that of best fighter ? by a mile ? on this Saturday night.
After two rounds of crisp, accurate punches thrown mostly by Cotto, the two exchanged blows as the crowd roared its approval throughout Round 3. By then, Cotto had taken control, same as in their previous fight, which, it should be noted, Cotto did not finish.
The sold-out crowd appeared almost entirely pro-Puerto Rican, in honor of Cotto, one of the most popular fighters in the history of Madison Square Garden. Margarito dressed his intended part ? that of heel ? wearing what looked like bedazzled green-and-red disco shorts, his hair in cornrows, his smile wider every time the crowd showered him with boos from the rafters to the ring.
Halfway through, Margarito?s right eye looked swollen shut. The seventh round ended with two Cotto punches after the bell, lest anyone forget the animosity that lingered. Not long after, the fight ended.
To say that Margarito and Cotto hated each may fail to capture the vitriol that flows between them. The second they enter a room together, the tension rises, contempt thick like smog in the air around. Their faces convey what words fail to. Their eyes fill with disdain and scorn. It is hate, of course, but is somehow also more than that.
Margarito won their first fight, in July 2008, when Cotto, the favorite, led through five rounds on the scorecards; when Margarito, the underdog, continued to push forward, taking punches in order to deliver them; when Margarito stunned Cotto, sent blood gushing from Cotto?s nose, bludgeoned Cotto so hard for so long that Cotto ended up in the hospital, bleeding from the ears.
Even then, it took six months for their feud to reach full boil. Not until Margarito contested Shane Mosley in Los Angeles, where he was caught wearing illegal hand wraps prior to the bout. When Mosley battered Margarito, suddenly, to Cotto, his earlier defeat made sense.
Cotto has remained resolute on this point ever since: He believes that Margarito cheated.
