Twitter comments on Cotto-Cheato HBO Face off

The main argument in Margo’s favour for the Cotto fight was that Keith Kaizer said he witnessed the wrapping. But you really can’t trust him on this because a) he showed what a mug he was at Mayweather-Ortiz and b) he’s hardly a neutral party in this,

If he admitted that they had not properly observed the hand wrapping of Margo, the NSAC would be open to a lawsuit from Cotto’s team. He’s going to avoid that, isn’t he?

What it comes down to is whether you believe that, just because Nevada provide wraps, gauze, etc, Margarito’s team could not have taken slipped a pad in. That photo, which the California Commission tried to insert as evidence, doesn’t prove much. It could be dye from the gloves. But it IS suspicious that the pad and wraps seized from Margo’s room pre-Mosley fight had “dried blood” on them.

At the hearing, inspector Che Guevara testified that, in three years and 150 hand wraps, he had never seen a pad like this.

He said, "It was sweat-soaked, thinner and harder in certain areas, not hard as a rock, but firm and hard," with a stain like "like old blood" on it. "It was not flexible. It was very firm."

Let’s consider that the only reason anyone found out was because they started wrapping before Nazim Richardson got there. They started, knowing that he wanted to observe, and obviously hoped they could bluff their way past it. With a less self-assured trainer they could have.

There was also the fact that there were TWO pads, so this was not a chance act. It was pre-meditated and by the fact he had that stuff on had, suggests he had done this before. Maybe not with Antonio, but I keep looking at how his stoppage percentage went UP as he faced better opponents.

How many people have stopped Cintron? One, technically - even if the idiot officials didn’t count it against Martinez. Yet Margo managed it twice. Cotto, who took harder punches from better fighters NEVER marked up that way before. He didn’t just look swollen; he looked like someone had mangled his face.

You don’t start cheating for a fight you’re a favourite in. If it was just the training (and that clearly played a part in it), then postpone the fight. Claim illness, whatever – he was the draw, not Mosley. Shane would have had to wait.

Also, Margarito was actually having his best round when Mosley clocked him with that left hook. I don’t buy that he was that different a fighter – he just lacked that “special” something that allowed him to wear his opponents down.

We’ll never really know, but more than a few insiders have suggested Margo isn’t anywhere near the fighter he was, wraps or no wraps. That could be a combination of the beating he took from Cotto early on (and it WAS a beating, he was getting hurt), Mosley in the last three rounds of their fight, and the brutalising he got from Pacquiao.

His eye is likely ruined, he’d clearly slowed down even more, and he’s not as strong to the body as he used to be. If he’s got much left, it’ll be a good fight, but if he doesn’t, he’ll get another beating just like he deserves.

 

i just hope cotto gets his revenge. he deserves it.

 

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Good post.

And in regards to the last paragraph, I'm one of the few that believes Cotto is actually more damaged goods than Margarito, and that this higher weight will suit Margarito more.

But we'll see. It's gonna' be an awesome fight. War Cotto!

 

I'm mixed on this. Half of me think's he's had them for a while, half of me doesn't.

There's evidence going backwards and forwards both way's, but we'll never know until somebody admit's it. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

I must admit when i heard about the handwrap scandal, i went right off Antonio, but the beating he took from Pacquiao somehow brought back a little respect for him. Not because he took a beating, but because he never quit, now i don't forget what he may/may not have done, but i'm a bit of a sucker for the whole "never give up" thing.

I don't think you can use the quote Cotto's father used about him never seeing his face like that before, because in my opinion Pacquiao busted up Cotto far worse than Margarito did, so now does Manny have loaded gloves?

Is Margarito finished? Maybe, Maybe not. It's easy to say he's looked shite since the Cotto fight, but he apparently had a bad training camp for the Mosley fight, not to mention he'd just been found with plaster handwraps, he was always going to lose that fight. It's the only time he'd ever been stopped, something even Pacquiao couldn't do so that proves in my mind he wasn't there the night of the Mosley fight.

Against Pacquiao, well come on Pacquiao is like Floyd, on a level above every other fighter it's stupid to even mention it, but he took everything Manny threw at him and kept coming, not to mention nearly folded Pacquiao like a deck chair with that bodyshot in the 6th.

All in all, i think Margarito will win Cotto again, unless Cotto does the Mosley approach in unloading 4-5 punches then grabbing, i can't see how Cotto can win because he's not gonna' outrun Margarito like Pacquiao did. I can see Margarito getting a late stoppage win. If he does the same to Cotto he did in the first fight does that make him innocent? No, we'll never know if he was innocent until the man himself comes out.

 

Pac didn't outrun Margo - he pulled him apart. How the ref didn't stop that is a mystery to me. You can't take a beating like that, get your eye all ****ed up, and go back in with Cotto.

Cotto lost the first fight (ignoring the wraps issue) on two things: he expended too much energy trying to keep out of Antonio’s way (a hangover from his amateur days), and he didn’t use his own physical strength to stop Margo from working.

I see the strategy as this: ignore Margo’s head and focus on the body in the early going. Cotto needs to take away Margo’s engine before he comes on strong in the late rounds. In the middle rounds start to box, using short combos to swell Margo’s face up. In the last, keep that jab working and maintain that body work.

 

Cotto is one of the finest body punchers of this generation and now Manny's got him going back to the boiler room i can't wait to see him sent bombs into Margo's ribs and Solar Plexus. He can bust him up in first six rounds and pull him to pieces. He's gonna take shots that's Cotto for ya but he's ready and with Manny i believe he will do as you said batter him to body.

 

if you look at there first fight you have to wonder whether Marg can now take the heat Cotto put on him in the first 6 rounds.

as long as Cotto fights with his head he takes it.

 

True i agree.

The thing about this fight though is there's a lot of emotion in it. Can Cotto stay under control and not let his emotion get in the way? That's what we have to see.

When Cotto fought Pacquiao, he did well for the first 3 rounds staying disciplined and Boxing, but then he let himself slide into Pacquiao's type of fight and the rest is history. Can he stay composed for 12 rounds with a man he hate's more than anybody else? I doubt it

 

I don't know, man. Cotto looked just as bad against Pacquiao to me. And Mosley's a cheating ****head as well so there's motive to use pads against just Mosley.

Who knows. I don't like to pretend as if I know because I don't, and nobody does except Margarito and his trainer.

 

Cotto was winning the fourth till he got clocked, IIRC. I can’t watch that fight though – it makes me feel physically sick. If he hadn’t been knocked down in the third he’d have taken two of the first three.

He lacked the corner to keep him calm and focused. Santiago was a ****ing joke – Freddy Roach was rubbing his hands in glee at that. He said, after the fight, that he was concerned at how well Cotto was doing. The only thing that gave him confidence was that Santiago didn’t have a clue about what he was doing, so it would all unravel later on. And it did, but much quicker than expected.

I don’t think Cotto got lost in the moment, he just didn’t have someone to keep him focused on the gameplan.

In Steward he has someone he respects, is comfortable with, and who will have an answer to everything Margarito will do.

 

Totally agree with this, early on Cotto was causing Pac so much trouble with his jab. Jeff Mayweather mentioned it in a interview how good he landed it early.

 

True i have to agree, Manny in the corner is a big factor in this one.

 

What also worried me before the Pac fight was the pact that Cotto and Santiago made. No mature proper boxing trainer would make a pact saying i won't put towel in and won't pull you out. Utterly stupid thing to do...