A RELIABLE and tested metric of a fighter?s true worth is how well he does in rematches. All the great ones did well and stepped up when it mattered.
Muhammad Ali exacted revenge on Joe Frazier. Sugar Ray Leonard had some payback with Roberto Duran.
And even though nobody cared about their rematch 16 years later, Bernard Hopkins gained some measure of personal redemption against tormentor Roy Jones Jr.
COTTO. Last Sunday, Miguel Cotto showed that he cared about his legacy and defeated a man who gave him a beatdown of the ruinous kind.
After that brutal TKO loss to Antonio Margarito, I always believed Cotto was a changed fighter.
Gone was the brusque, robust manner by which he traded leathers with powerful boxers like Shane Mosley and Zab Judah.
He looked tentative against the enigmatic Joshua Clottey and refused to go toe to toe with the smaller Manny Pacquiao.
To redeem himself, he had to beat the man he felt wronged him on a dastardly level.
He did that quite well last Sunday and for that boxing history will be kinder to this talented Puerto Rican when it assesses his legacy as a fighter.
ADJUSTMENTS. I thought Margarito would be able to repeat over Cotto, but in the rematch, the latter had some crucial adjustments that proved to be invaluable.
First, he gave Margarito different angles. Using more lateral movement, the latter was not completely able to set his feet and deliver his blows with full force.
It?s a no-brainer that Margarito is a one-trick pony. He wades in trying to deliver punishment. Give him some movement, and he?s in trouble.
