For those of you that think Margo was about to break Cotto down, that's just you justifying your lack of judgement. The fact is, Cotto came in top form and was maintaining his punch output and landing %. HE WON 90% OF THE ROUNDS What makes you think that 6 minutes would have changed anything? Margo could barely see and was getting his ass handed to him going into the final rounds. Logic tells me that would have continued and if anyone was saved, it was definitely Margo.
Hw won the fight by boxing. We all know Cotto has the heart to stand and trade, but it would very stupid to make that a strategy. It was a very exciting fight all around, and aside from the horrible decision over in Finland, a GREAT night for boxing!
Even as a Cotto fan, I picked him to lose last night, because I didn't think he would have the stamina to eek out a decision or the power to stop Margarito outright. I was expecting him to gas somewhere in the middle rounds. But last night, I was impressed with his conditioning and gameplan. He actually clinched when need be, and was surprisingly pushing Margarito back at times. I figured once Margarito began to push Cotto back out of the clinch, then that would be indicative of Cotto fading. However, that never happened, and Miguel still looked relatively fresh to me in the 9th round, despite the pressure Margarito was applying. It's Boxing, so anything could have happened in those final three rounds. Stilll I didn't get the feeling that the tide would be changing any time soon.
Cotto boxed wisely, but he was on his way to breaking down. All the physical signs from the first fight was coming true again. His body language was the same, even though he implemented new offensive attacks, he was still breaking down.
Maybe a different question should be asked: What was gassing out faster, Cotto's Stamina or Margarito's Eye? :deal
He was tiring accordingly with the effort he'd put in, but gassing...NO. Miguel wasn't getting beat last night no matter what. A lot of people are clutching at straws thinking it would have went the same way has the first fight but when a man tells himself he won't be beat, then that's a hard man to beat. Miguel had all the answers last night, i'm proper pleased for him.
Cotto WAS gassing, but in this fight, he had not absorbed the punishment he recieved in the first fight. In the last complete round, Cotto pushed Margo to a corner, delivered a 3-4 punch combo (didn´t miss a single punch) and then inexplicably he just retreated all the way to the opposite corner. That pissed me off, but then I realized Cotto felt he had already realized he coudn´t KTFO Margo, and needed to save himself to the championship rounds. At the end, he didn´t need it.
