**Cotto v Margartio. Official Analysis and Avatar Bets Thread**

Agreed. Cotto is afterall a natural lefty, but fights orthodox. So I wouldn't mind him throwing the old switheroo in there every now and then just to disrupt Tony's rythm (if he ever finds one). Thought it was beautiful when he switched up against Judah and thought it worked quite nicely. But it probably worked there as Zab is a lefty and that probably confused him even more as he is more accustomed to fighting orthodox fighters. But it is part of his arsenal,and if he feels like he would gain an advantage by switching up at some stage of the fight, by all means let him. More power to him.

 

It's great to see a thread on Cotto/Margarito. For whatever reason this fight and these fighters don't seem very popular subjects on this forum. Personally, I'm literally counting the days to this fight.

 

Not only am I willing to bet against Cotto here, I'm putting all my points up, and at least $1000 cash.

I'll take that bet.

 

whoa whoa whoa. i sure hope you are bluffing especially about that cash. if not, i hope you have plenty more b/c you're going to be 1000 short on your bills.

 

Sosa, Bazan and Pinto might all be longer than Cotto but all those guys are much thinner than Margarito. For that reason they are also not nearly as durable as Margarito.

Cotto's power imo will not be evident in this fight. It will look much more like the Ndou fight where Cotto will end up retreating because his power will not have an effect. His punches won't hurt Margarito as much as they do other opponents and so he'll be forced to work harder, and with much more risk inside. In the end he won't do it. He will retreat. And that will put him on the end of Margarito's punches.

Margarito wins by TKO in 8.

 

Why retreat? He is the better boxer of the two. If he doesn't affect Margo (which I don't believe for a minute), he can outbox him and use some lateral movement. Nevermind that his lateral movement is not great, its still better than Margo's, so its there for him.

The connection you make between him not hurting Margo and ending up retreating and being at the end of Margo's punches is odd to me given the fact that he won't be a standing target for him IMO.

 

LOL, no bluff. Let's bump this thread when the fight is over.

I know Cotto is your man but he's going back to PR with an L.

 

i'll take that avatar bet. i've never done an avatar bet. so you can explain how it goes.

although, i have to admit, i'm not too concerned about winning.

 

Normally when Cotto hits an opponent they back off. Margarito doesn't back off even when he's hurt. He'll nod and keep coming forward.

What you have to realize is that for every punch Cotto steps into he is opening the door for a counter. Everytime he does it. The more often he does it the more often he is going to get tagged.

Margarito is a big guy. Not just height and reach but MASS. He has the natural strength of a jr.middleweight and he will apply that strength on the end of a jab and inside when necessary.

Typically Cotto won't pay for it because as he steps into punches opponents usually are stepping back. So it works out for him. But against Margarito he steps in and he may be stepping into a counter right or counter uppercut. Simply because Margarito will not give ground easily.

At the point where Cotto feels his power is not changing the pace and he feels he is being pulled into Margarito's fight he may elect to let Margarito lead and hope he falls in so counter opportunities present themselves.

Cotto's lateral movement as you mentioned is not great stuff either. Reason being his whole gameplan depends on landing methodical punches in 1s and 2s. HARD punches that require you to set your feet. If his hard punches do nothing to Margarito he is going to have to change his gameplan. He cannot risk it by throwing more of said punches, depleting his stamina reserve and being more stationary for the bigger Margarito.

No amount of lateral movement will help if your feet are planted and your opponent is drilling your body.

 

Ok, something I don't understand about the repititious argument for Cotto is that Cotto has a better offense than Margarito's, or Cotto is a better boxer. That's offense against offense right?

Look, we know that Cotto's offense is better than Margarito's defense and that Cotto will be scoring on Margarito very easily (just like every other Margarito opponent).

Now, is Cotto's defense better than Margarito's offense? Because Margarito shouldn't have too many problems scoring and doing damage either, no? Both guys have great offense and questionable defense right?

Are people who are saying that Cotto is a "better boxer" saying that Cotto is going to make Margarito miss all night? What is specifically being said here?

 

Let's do it. I'm not too sure about the avatar bet thing though either. I assume that the winner gets to pick the losers avatar for an agreed upon duration.

 

And vice versa. As I explained, Cotto is the faster, straighter puncher. Why you think he isn't favored in this category is strange to me. The reasons you favor Margo so far are the very reasons you should be favoring Cotto.

Im sorry man but his jab isn't nearly as effective as Cotto's.

So he will be a punching bag. His standing in fron of Cotto is what is going to do him in.

I really don't know why you see his punches doing "nothing" to Margarito. Yes Margo is big, yes he takes an excellent shot, but rarely has a puncher like Cotto been able to do nothing against any opponent.

 

Actually, i would have to answer your question with a yes. I say this b/c Marg throws very wide looping punches, which Cotto "should" be able to avoid or block for the most part. I'm not saying Marg wont land b/c of course he will. But I do believe that Cotto can make him miss if he elects to box Margarito. If margarito is going to catch Cotto it may possibly be in exchanges. However,, I think if Cotto decides to box mostly, he can frustrate Margarito a lot.

Too put it another way, while Cotto's defense isnt way better than marg's offense, I would say that his defense is not worse than tony's offense. they are equal at worse, in which case they will cancel each other out leaving Cotto''s offense to destroy Tony's defense.

 

cool.

CAN ANYONE ELSE GIVE DETAILS ABOUT AVATAR BETS AND HOW THEY USUALLY WORK OUT.

ARE THERE ANY AVATARS THAT ARE NOT ALLOWED BY esb?

I dont want to get banned again?

 

Being faster only matters if you are getting off first and not waiting around for the counter. You and I both know this isn't true of Cotto. If he plans on doing damage he will eventually take some damage. Look a his past fights for many examples. At least in big fights he has been shook or worse against opponents he tried to leave a mark on.

Cotto will be there to be hit if he elects to try and sit on his punches. It has happened before and I see no reason to believe it won't happen again here.

It will likely be a big factor in this fight. In training, if they are training properly, Margarito will come to the ring with a jab that will amaze you. Not a decoy jab but a hard stiff jab that will push Cotto back.

Cotto has a decent jab but remember good big man > good little man. Always. If Margarito sits on his jab and forces it through Cotto, Cotto's jab will become nonexistent. It won't land as often or as hard.

A 5'11 160lb punching bag who throws lots of hard punches every round from lots of different angles. I'd be more worried about Cotto here than Margarito.

Cotto has been smart about who he attacks. Usually he'll test his power early and see if he leaves a mark. If he doesn't then he'll go into that cat and mouse routine. He did this against Mosley most recently but the fight I keep bringing up is the Ndou fight. Reason being that Ndou is probably the closest guy on Cotto's resume compared to Margarito. A guy as durable as Margarito doesn't go easily. And you take massive chances by pushing that issue trying to knock him out. You end up falling into his game of a slugfest. Lots of guys have tried and lots have failed.

The way to beat Margarito is to make him come forward and hope that he just comes in sloppy and gives up his height easily. As I stated before if Margarito comes out pumping that jab, Cotto is ****ed. Margarito has to know coming in that Cotto can't do **** for damage if he's on the backfoot all night. And all Margarito has to do is force Cotto to take chances by maintaining a good distance with the jab. It'll create counter opportunities all night long.