So much for sticking a fork in Boricua Bomber Miguel Cotto. After nine rounds at a packed (21,000-plus) Madison Square Garden Saturday night, the veteran fighter from Caguas was resplendent and resurgent. By the end, when a coterie of ringside physicians halted it, Mexican Antonio Margarito looked like a guy who had been getting a fork stuck repeatedly into his previously damaged right eyeby Mr. Cotto. Cotto turned Margarito, who had no cement inserts in his handwraps on this evening, into a One Eye Jack and while Cotto’s career is recharged. Margarito’s ring future seems limited if not finished altogether. As I wrote from ringside, this was as entertaining, onesided world title fight as we’ve all seen in some time. It seemed like 99.9 of the fevered fans were countrymen and countrywomen of Senor Cotto and they were extremely passionate and even sportsmanlike at the finish, except for about 10 to 15 “beer courage” louts who were jeering and spitting at Margarito as he stumbled to the exit to his dressing room. All in all, a brilliant night for boxing and a reminder of some of the reasons it is the best sport in the universe. I certainly didn’t hear any of those tiresome up with MMKA, down with boxing dirges around the Garden and environs. At the postfight watering hole, the bar in the Affinia Hotel, there was an eclectic mix of satisfied fight fans, all chatting nicely and enthusiastically about the show they had just enjoyed and the Dream Fight (Mayweather-Pacquiao) they pine for.
