Just re-watched Cotto vs Margarito

After the hysteria of seeing Cotto succumb to Margarito, I've heard on a few occasions at ESB that this fight has no business being mentioned in the same sentence as Marquez vs Vasquez III. Some even decide to put other great fights ahead of this one, including; Pacquiao vs Marquez II, and of course, Adamek vs Cunningham. It's been called overrated as of late, and I would like to attempt to dispell the rumour.

These two go toe-to-toe for 11 brutal rounds, with barely even a clinch in the entire fight. I couldn't quite appreciate Margarito's work on the first viewing, but he was landing sharp uppercuts inside, and shortened hooks to the head, early in the fight. You could hear the thuds of the gloves, as Cotto was clearly landing shots that would have dazed or even knocked unconscious teh majority of other 147lb fighters in the world if landed cleanly. Margarito would just smile, laugh, and often jog across the ring to take more punishment in order to land his shots.

There is another rumour that attempts to downplay how great this fight was by trying to say Cotto was not getting full power into his shots, because he was on the back foot. I think this is a load of crap. Cotto was not on the backfoot as much as he was in the early rounds, as he was in the later ones, but you just had to look at the slow-motion replays to see those unbelievable bombs landing. It's a credit to both Cotto's punching power, hand speed, but also Margarito's chin and determination, that this fight didn't end as early as the 6th.

I don't remember any dull moments, apart from maybe round 10 where Cotto pretty much avoided everything Margarito threw, but then of course the last 30 seconds brought on an onslaught that would not only badly hurt Cotto, but win Margarito the round. That was pretty much the story of the fight. This was not one-sided. Margarito detractors who want to criticise him for heading into a rematch with Cotto say that "Cotto got his ass whooped". "It was an easy night". That is bull****. I had Miguel winning 5 of the opening 6 rounds, and the 9th, and what made this fight so great apart from two heavy punchers going toe to toe with hardly any breaks for 11 rounds, was the ebb and flow of the action.

A fight of the highest order in my opinion, and it would be no injustice for it to grab FOTY honors..in this posters opinion.

 

Some of the slow-motion action shots they showed in between rounds were sickening. I couldn't believe Margarito was not even wobbled in the fight, just like Kellerman says, "We know Cotto's heavy handed and we see him landing these titanic shots, but none of them seem to phase Margarito". Unreal.

 

Which makes it even more sickening.

 

I'm split, Rafael.

On one hand, I think Margarito is a humble guy and would not lie about something like that. On the other hand, I watched the fight live on TV, and I must have rewatched it close to 15 times, and I'm always in awe with the shots that are landing. Cotto is a above average puncher, even as a Welterweight, and he couldn't have landed harder shots than he did that not.

I'll give Margarito the benefit of the doubt, as he never showed any evidence of being hurt, but Cotto can bang.

 

But that's my point. Cotto didn't just land the odd shot on Margarito, he landed bombs from opening bell to last, and on one occasion in particular, three consecutive left hooks with his feet planted. At the end of the day, Margarito should have had Cotto's respect at that point, but he didn;t.

 

Bull****.

Watch the fight again. It's on HBO's Boxing website, for free.

Cotto lands big bombs, in virtually every round, and his feet is often planted. He threw everything but the kitchen sink.