Cotto said he noticed "something strange, something weird" in their first fight. His face swelled up in ways it shouldn't have. Margarito never wanted to quit. His corner barked at ringside doctors and begged for one more round, insisting Margarito could still go. Doctors saw it another way. Cotto took quick aim on the eye and by the third round it was already closing.
By the seventh, it was swollen shut. With one eye, Margarito gamely fought on, hoping for that one brutal blow that could change the fight. Half blind, he never had a chance.
Ring doctor Anthony Curreri stopped the fight even though 3 seconds ticked off in the 10th round. The fighters never met in the center of the ring. He did go quite a bit with the eye impaired. Cotto said he long resisted a rematch because he didn't want money going to an opponent who didn't fight fair. Cotto took any issues of legality out of this one from the opening round. Margarito laughed, smiled and even taunted Cotto after suffering several big blows.
His demeanor didn't help him at the end of the seventh round, when he sat on his corner stool, his right eye shut. Cotto felt at home at MSG where he heard the type of cheers New York's Carmelo Anthony, watching from the first row, would love to hear if he could lead the Knicks to a championship. Cotto continued taking shots long after the ref stopped the bout.
Asked if he didn't feel Margarito's punches as much this time because of the gloves, Cotto smiled. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Cotto gets revenge; stops Margarito in rematch. The 'most avoided' fighter? Thanks to the crowd here. I love you. Like many, Cotto strongly believes that Margarito cheated his way to a win the first time around. In Margarito's next fight in January , he was caught trying to enter the ring with Shane Mosley with loaded hand wraps coated in a plaster-like substance.
Obviously, there is strong speculation that Margarito got away with wearing loaded wraps in the first fight with Cotto, which he won after coming on strong in the second half of the bout. But with unprecedented attention paid to Margarito's hand wraps in the dressing room Saturday night, he fought clean and showed very little.
That could also be the product of the long layoffs he has had since the Mosley fight because of his license revocation and a serious right eye injury that he suffered in a one-sided beating from Manny Pacquiao 13 months ago.
The eye damaged by Pacquiao was one of the focal points of the prefight buildup, as Margarito required surgery to remove a cataract and have an artificial lens placed in his eye. It almost caused the New York commission to deny Margarito a license, until it finally relented after an additional eye exam less than two weeks before the fight. Cotto said he would target the eye -- and he did, in what had to be a cathartic experience as he gave Puerto Rico one of its greatest victories in its boxing rivalry with Mexico, Margarito's home country.
Cotto started much like he did in the first fight -- jabbing, moving, landing shots and avoiding what little was coming back from the slower Margarito. He was in complete control, and in the toe-to-toe third round, he cut Margarito on his surgically repaired eye. Round after round, multiple doctors were in Margarito's corner to check the most famous right eye in boxing. Margarito, showing nothing but bravado, repeatedly pointed to his eye as if to taunt Cotto.
Cotto's response was simply to punch him in the face, often on the eye. The eye looked very bad by the sixth round and it was being closely checked. After the eighth, it was closed and the fight was nearly stopped. After the ninth round, there was another lengthy discussion in the corner and when the bell rang to start the 10th round, referee Steve Smoger called timeout.
Moments later, on the advice of ringside physician Dr. Anthony Curreri, Smoger stopped the fight, sending the crowd into raucous celebration. He had no vision in the right eye, meaning he had no peripheral vision. The fight did go on for quite a bit with the eye impaired. For them, it was revenge.
For me, it was just the making of a good fight with all the backstory to help sell it. Margarito, playing his villain role to the hilt, would not give Cotto any credit for his dominant performance. Cotto believes the gauze shouldn't have broke in the manner that it did.
Cotto believes Margarito is a cheater and plans to beat him to help further casts doubt on his first loss to the Mexican. Does this mean Cotto will not be as fearful of Margarito's punches? Will Cotto try to walk through Margarito? Or will Cotto apply his superior boxing skills and not turn?
Cotto will most likely be respectful of Margarito's power in the opening rounds. Margarito will come forward, and Cotto will know if he is right. Margarito says he can beat Cotto again and has nothing to prove. All of this may just be posturing by Margarito, but this overly cocky persona is bringing out a winning performance as the villain of the fight. People like to have someone to root against almost as much, if not more than, as someone to root for.
Margarito has proven he can sell tickets and create interests with his bad guy persona. On December 3, boxing fans will find out if he can beat Cotto under the most fair of circumstances. Cotto is in New York with four wins coming by way of knockout. Margarito has never fought as a professional in New York. New York is home to Cotto's heavy Puerto Rican fanbase. This could play a factor in the fight. Location sometimes is everything, especially for fights that go the difference.
Hometown decisions happen all the time in big fights. Though after much deliberation, the commission has approved the match, they also will likely be quick to want to stop the fight if Cotto targets the right eye and manages to cause any amount of damage to it.
Wars aren't what they used to be; referees are encouraged to stop long exchanges early, as the ref could be potentially be witnessing the demise of a boxer. Cotto vs. HBO's Face Off series features two boxers in an intense rivalry facing each other in a dark room with cheers turned backwards and HBO's Max Kellerman acting as mediator and instigator. Unlike most of the previous rivalries, Cotto and Margarito have an intense mutual and authentic hatred of one another.
The hatred gives off a putrid smell of flesh-boiling from being in the same room of each other. The disgust on Cotto's face is barely held in.
The bravado jumps from Margarito's demeanor to keep him from acting out his frustrations on Cotto's face too early. If anyone is not yet sold on the fight, they must watch the Face Off. Cotto and Margarito have both been offered good fights with some of the biggest money-makers in boxing should they win their battle against each other. Though he's looked unimpressive in his losses to Mayweather and Pacquiao, his name still attracts pay-per-view buyers.
Many other big matchups remain for the victor, whereas the loser will have fallen to depths too low to climb out of.
0コメント