Miguel Cotto Stops Antonio Margarito In Nine Rounds

Miguel Cotto dominated and battered Antonio Margarito, over nine lopsided rounds, on Saturday night (December 3) at Madison Square Garden, earning a TKO decision after a ringside doctor ruled that the Mexican fighter could no longer continue.

The Puerto Rican fighter seemed like he was punishing the Tijuana-bred boxer for it too, repeatedly rocking him with jabs, straight rights, and stiff lefts, helping him avenge a 2008 loss against Margarito, which added the first blemish to his then-perfect record.

Margarito reportedly underwent surgery to repair a fractured orbital bone, following a loss to Manny Pacquiao last November ... and contemplated retirement. He obviously returned, but wasn't licensed until November 22, after the New York State Athletic Commission ordered an examination of his eye.

From the beginning of Saturday night's fight, Cotto aimed for that eye until it was swollen shut by the seventh round.

With the eye closed, a ringside physician examined the eye before the ninth round and let the bout resume. But the round, in which Cotto continued to beat on the eye, the doctors ruled Margarito couldn't see out of the eye and told referee Steve Smoger to stop the fight, despite the objections of Margarito and his corner men.

"The eye was completely shut," Smoger said. "He couldn't see out and I couldn't see in. We have a rule in New York that if you can't see out of an eye, we have to stop the fight."

Margarito seemed to be hunting for one big blow to turn things around, which never came.

Cotto stared down Margarito from his corner after the bout was stopped ... later explaining that he wanted to "taste my victory."

"Just to look at him and taste my victory on him. He means nothing to me. I'm here with all my crowd and all my people. He means nothing to me," Cotto said.

In their first meeting, the "Tijuana Tornado" stopped Cotto in the 11th round in Las Vegas. Cotto had maintined previously, and during the lead-up to Saturday's fight, that Margarito also used illegal plaster-loaded hand wraps -- which were confiscated before his January 2009 loss to Shane Mosley -- during their first fight and claimed he had the photos to prove it. And, long resisted a rematch because he didn't want money going to an opponent who didn't fight fair.

When he finally took the rematch, he left nothing to chance ... as seen by his performance, taking it to his rival from round #1. He event smiled and taunted

Despite the stoppage, and how battered his face looked, Margarito claims he had "no vision problems" and would've won if the fight continued.

"I needed two more rounds to win the fight," he said. "I thought I threw harder punches, was doing fine."

Cotto improved to 37-2, while Margarito fell to 38-8.

Fight promoter Bob Arum said, after the fight, that Cotto's next fight might be against middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., but also Floyd Mayweather Jr. also is a possibility.

By  Randall Stevens

Source:  www.ballerstatus.com/2011/12/03/miguel-cotto-stops-antonio-margarito-in-nine-rounds/

Cotto TKOs rival Margarito

Miguel Cotto got his revenge, and Antonio Margarito probably has to see another eye doctor.

In a brilliant display of boxing skills and determination, Cotto got his long-awaited justice, earning a TKO and retaining his WBA junior middleweight title at 154 pounds when ringside doctors stopped the fight after the ninth round because Margarito’s right eye was swollen shut. The official time was three seconds into the 10th, but that’s only because doctors allowed Margarito to desperately plea to fight at least one more round.

But his pleas fell on deaf ears and eventually were drowned out by a sellout crowd of 21,239 mostly Cotto fans who delighted in their warrior’s win. It was sweet revenge for the Puerto Rican, who dominated the fight. He was up on all three scorecards 89-82 and never was seriously hurt.

“He’s still a very strong fighter, but I’m way better than he is,” Cotto said. “I’m very happy and very proud of what I did. There was a lot of hard work in training camp and the strategy worked. I’m very happy to finally get it over with.”

Margarito said he would have won given time.

“I thought I threw the harder punches,” he said. “I did need more rounds to beat him.”

Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs) and Margarito (38-8, 27 KOs) first met in July 2008 in Las Vegas when Margarito scored an 11th-round TKO after Cotto could no longer endure the punishment he was taking. Though he had dominated the early rounds with his boxing skills, Cotto became a bloody mess as he began to wilt under Margarito’s relentless pressure and power punches.

But that fight and many of Margarito’s previous victories came under scrutiny when plaster-like substances were found in his hand wraps before his fight with Shane Mosley in January 2009. Margarito was suspended for a year, and Cotto now believes Margarito had loaded wraps in their fight.

In recent weeks, the two exchanged insults with Cotto calling Margarito a “criminal” and “an embarrassment” to boxing, while Margarito countered by saying Cotto punches “like a girl.”

But the hand wraps weren’t the only sub plot last night. The New York State Athletic Commission brought in an eye surgeon with the specific assignment to watch Margarito’s surgically repaired right eye. It was concern over the eye that caused the commission to delay granting Margarito his boxing license until two weeks before the fight. Margarito had a broken orbital bone repaired, a cataract removed and an artificial lens inserted to repair damage he suffered in his November fight with Manny Pacquiao.

Meanwhile, Naazim Richardson, the trainer for Mosley, who originally detected the illegal plaster-like pads in the hand wraps Margarito was wearing before his fight with Mosley, was brought in by the Cotto camp to specifically watch Margarito’s hands being wrapped last night. But he was not allowed into Margarito’s locker room by the NYSAC because the Philadelphia native was not licensed. Instead it was Cotto’s trainer, Pedro Diaz, who watched Margarito’s wrapping like a hawk hunting prey.

* In the undercard bouts, Delvin Rodriguez (26-5-3, 14 KOs) won a unanimous decision over Pawel Wolak (29-2-1, 19 KOs) in a fight that was as thrilling as their first. Rodriguez of Danbury, Conn., used his long jab and quick combinations to riddle a charging Wolak of Mount Arlington, N.J., with an endless stream of punches. Rodriguez ended it by dominating the 10th and final round. ... Brandon Rios lost his WBA lightweight title on the scale but scored an 11th-round TKO over John Murray of England.

By  GEORGE WILLIS

Source:www.nypost.com/p/sports/boxing/sweet_revenge_3VBUgytr2HDS2ZQ8KvZTAM

Cotto gets closure by dominating Margarito in hateful rematch

NEW YORK -- Genuine hatred, like the animus that underwrote Saturday's rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito at Madison Square Garden, cannot be manufactured by even the shrewdest of boxing's carnival barkers, try as they might.

Source:  sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/bryan_armen_graham/12/04/cotto.margarito/index.html
 

Cool Cotto gets long-sought revenge

NEW YORK – Other than the raucous sell-out crowd of 21,239 fans which roared for Miguel Cotto’s every move, little seemed different between Saturday’s bout with Antonio Margarito and their first match in 2008.

Cotto boxed beautifully in both bouts and peppered Margarito with a series of of hooks, jabs, crosses and uppercuts. And just as in their epic 2008 bout in Las Vegas, Margarito kept barreling forward the whole way.

But at the post-fight news conference Saturday following Cotto’s 10th-round technical knockout victory, the World Boxing Association super welterweight champion patted his cheek softly in an attempt to explain the difference.

“I’m not going to say anything about the last fight and this one, but my face now is a lot different,” Cotto said in a none-too-subtle jab at his vanquished rival.

Months after that superb 2008 bout that Margarito won by 11th-round stoppage, Cotto came to believe that Margarito had fought with a hardened insert in his hand wraps. That led Cotto to repeatedly call Margarito a criminal and started the bitter feud between the two.

Cotto exacted his revenge on Saturday, using a series of left hands to target Margarito’s questionable right eye. After Margarito’s one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao last year, Margarito needed multiple surgeries. He broke an orbital bone in the bout, had a lens implanted and a cataract removed.

The New York commission waited until less than two weeks before the bout to grant Margarito a license because of concerns about Margarito’s eye. Not only were there fears about the surgeries, but there were concerns whether he could see to adequately protect himself.

Despite the large welt that closed his right eye, Margarito complained that the fight was stopped too quickly

“Cotto was protected,” Margarito said, almost sneering.

Cotto wasted little time attacking Margarito’s eye, firing hooks and a hard jab at it from the first round. Margarito’s eye began to swell badly by the third and, by the eighth, it was completely closed. Margarito and his corner, particularly co-manager Francisco Espinoza, pleaded with Dr. Anthony Curreri to let the fight go forward.

They won the battle after the eighth round, but lost it following the ninth. The bell rang to start the 10th, but Margarito did not come out of his corner, as Espinoza argued with Curreri. Curreri finally went over to speak with referee Steve Smoger, and Smoger ultimately stopped it on Curreri’s advice.

“I think it was a little bit of favoritism because my eye was worse when I fought Pacquiao,” Margarito said. “The doctor asked me three times ‘How many fingers am I holding?’ and I responded correctly. I think I could have continued. I asked for at least one more round.”

But Margarito wasn’t walking Cotto down the way he did in the first fight. On the few occasions when Margarito did land a good shot or two, Cotto smartly tied him up. Margarito thus never was able to gain the momentum he had in the second half of the first fight, when he broke Cotto down and stopped him.

Cotto conceded Margarito’s toughness, but felt his boxing skill and his work with new trainer Pedro Diaz made the difference in the outcome.

“He’s still a very strong fighter, but I’m way better than he is,” Cotto said. “I’m very happy and very proud of what I did tonight. There was a lot of hard work in this training camp. It showed that the strategy worked.”

It was made easier by the fact that Margarito’s right eye closed so quickly. The eye, which required 12 stitches to repair, was a mess. Because of the swelling, Margarito had zero vision out of it by the time the fight ended. Promoter Bob Arum, though, dismissed the idea that Margarito’s surgeries contributed to his problems on Saturday.

“Fighters’ eyes close all the time, particularly when they’re cut,” Arum said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with the surgery. Miguel was targeting the eye. He cut it and it closed.”

Cotto went at it hard, and each time, Margarito talked to him, taunting him and urging Cotto to try it again.

The problem was, Cotto’s speed and punching accuracy were too much and Margarito was unable to slow the onslaught. Cotto landed 43 percent of the punches he threw, according to CompuBox, a very high number. More telling was that he landed on 51 percent of his power punches, most of which were left hooks.

“I had a job to do and I did it and I did it well,” Cotto said.

Despite the outcome, the bad feelings between the sides weren’t diffused. After the fight, Cotto’s mother was in the ring trash talking Margarito.

She asked Margarito if he still felt like Cotto hit like a girl, since Margarito had mocked Cotto’s punching power prior to the fight. Instead of walking away, Margarito talked back.

“His mom came up to me and asked if he hits like a girl,” Margarito said. “I said, ‘Yeah, because the punches didn’t hurt me.’ The swelling got worse and worse and that’s the reason it was stopped.”

Cotto, who fought with a cool precision, didn’t gloat at the post-fight news conference, though. In what was one of the defining performances of his career, he won eight of nine rounds on all three judges’ scorecards and beat his biggest rival.

He wouldn’t say the hard feelings were over, but he wouldn’t say they weren’t, either. “He has his own life, and I have mine,” Cotto said. “He can keep with his life. I’m going to keep with mine.”

After being an angry young man for most of the last three years, Cotto is going to go on with his life much happier and more contented.

That’s what happens when you vanquish your greatest rival.

The smiles come easy.

By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports

Source:  sports.yahoo.com/box/news

Antonio Margarito seemed to do more taunting than punching at times during his loss to Miguel Cotto. (AP)