Nothing defines a fighter like how he responds to his first loss. Some guys, they step into the ring with a big gaudy record, get promptly deposited on their ass, and next thing you know they?re fighting some construction worker at a fairground in some podunk nowhere and telling anyone who will listen how they used to fight on TV back in the day before losing eight straight. Other guys, you knock them out and when you wake up the next morning they?re world champions. Last week we saw a man conquer his demons. This week, we get to see a man face them.
Unless you?ve been living under a rock for the past week, you probably heard how Miguel Cotto finally avenged his first career loss, taking an almost perverse pleasure in repeatedly attacking the surgically repaired eye of Antonio Margarito until the Mexican, left without reply since he no longer had plaster in his wraps to mask his lack of ability against elite competition, found himself forced to sit down after the ninth round when people more sensible than himself decided that his health was more important than his machismo. Cotto had his revenge, and in some sense he succeeded where many a boxing commission failed, ensuring that Antonio Margarito will likely never be a major force as a fighter again.
Not everyone is so lucky as Cotto. When trainer Panama Lewis removed padding from the gloves of Luis Resto in 1983, leading to Billy Collins being beaten up so badly that he never fought again, his blurred vision from a torn iris quite possibly responsible for his death in a car accident the following year, Lewis and Resto were brought up on charges and banned from the sport for life. Until someone explains to me how Antonio Margarito?s sins are any less than what Resto and Lewis inflicted on Billy Collins, I will continue to beat the drum for Margarito?s permanent banishment from boxing and hope that Miguel Cotto?s display of heart, toughness, and perseverance indeed did future boxing commissions? jobs for them.
