Revenge is a dish best served cold. Last night Miguel Cotto revenged his first loss against his nemesis Antonio Margarito with a 10th round TKO. The fight was stopped due to Margarito’s right eye completely closing. With or without plaster, I think Margarito would’ve beat Cotto in 2008, and he very well may have got the best of Cotto in the 10th, and 11th rounds last night had the fight continued. Unfortunately, we will never know. I am in no way discrediting Cotto’s performance last night. He put on an amazing boxing clinic; he avoided the ropes, circled to his left, and displayed great ring generalship.
But at the time of the stoppage, Cotto didn’t look very good. Margarito came out in the 9th and looked as if he was just taught how to cut the ring off. Nobody expected Margarito to win the early rounds. Miguel did what he was supposed to do in the first half of the fight, and from the looks of it, Antonio was beginning to do what he was supposed to do in the second half.
At the end of the 9th round, I had the fight scored 88-83 for Cotto. By that point Cotto had stopped circling, appeared to be backing straight up, and at times found himself lying on those god forsaken ropes, his real enemy. However, he would seem to realize and quickly throw an affective combination to make it appear he was okay.
What would’ve happened in that 10th round had the fight continued? Was the outcome inevitable? Margarito pleaded loudly with ringside physicians to give him one more round, while Cotto stood in the other corner silently pleading for no more. Miguel knew that the next three rounds were going to be the real test. Nobody ever questioned Miguel’s ability to make a fool of Antonio in the early rounds. Anyone who picked Margarito to win thought he would do so in the championship rounds.
At the end of the fight Cotto seemed pleased with what should’ve been his most fulfilling win of his career. The 20,000 Puerto Rican fans at Madison Square Garden praised him. The media praised him. I on the other hand feel he shouldn’t be content with what was done last night. Once again I am not taking anything away from Cotto’s performance, but he was the recipient of a lucky call. A call that surely could’ve altered the fight. Sure, it’s karma in its purest form. Cotto took advantage of Antonio’s eye the same way Antonio “supposedly” took advantage of Cotto with illegal wraps in 2008. The eye of Margarito that caused so much drama heading into the fight, turned out to be the deciding factor in the fight; not any significant changes in Cotto or Margarito’s game plan. The question I leave you, the reader with is: had Margarito not taken a brutal beating against Manny Pacquiao, causing severe trauma to his right eye, would I be even writing this article today? Miguel Cotto got his revenge against Antonio Margarito; I just question how content he should be with the win, because he failed to answer what was in question in the first place.
