Viva Puerto Rico: Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito II could be heading to Vegas........

It was nearly ten years ago when I attended my first notable prize fight with the May 2001 Felix 'Tito' Trinidad-William Joppy WBA middleweight title bout inside of Madison Square Garden. The winner was set to face off with Bernard Hopkins as part of Don King's middleweight tournament and it was a wild weekend all the way around.

Hailing from Puerto Rico, Trinidad had stamped himself as both one of the islands most beloved heroes as well as one of the sport's most accomplished pugilists at the time. With chants of 'Tito! Tito! Tito!' coming up everywhere he seemed to go, Trinidad was a prime example of the passion and love that people have for their countryman.

During his fight with Joppy, Trinidad was relentless, scoring a devastating 5th-round knockout and the sold out crowd inside of the Garden went wild. With flags waiving, constant screaming, and dancing and partying, I was taken back the entire weekend but just how crazy the Puerto Rican fans were during my time in New York.

Over ten years later and one of Puerto Rico's stars is still going strong, as Miguel Cotto is a little over a week removed from a precise 12th round TKO over Ricardo Mayorga at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. While he isn't nearly as bombastic as Felix, Cotto's subdued demeanor is overshadowed by his patient and savage attack inside of the ring.

Times have been tough in Las Vegas and big shows in the area hadn't been drawing as well as in days past, with a trio of high-profile events from November to December of last year at the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay all drew less than 5,000 spectators. On November 6th Juan Manuel Lopez-Rafael Marquez pulled in 4,818 people while three weeks later Juan Manuel Marquez's dissection of Michael Katsidis was witnessed by 4,920 partisans. Two weeks after that Amir Khan defended his WBA junior welterweight crown against Marcos Maidana as a crowd of 4,632 watched on.

Those numbers were mildly disappointing considering the relevance of each of the main events and people didn't know what a lesser fight like Cotto vs. Mayorga would draw. Sitting from ringside as I watched the action unfold, I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent turnout and later found out that the exact number read 7,427.

One man who is delighted by that tally mark is Cotto's promoter Bob Arum, who even went on record recently as saying that it is reason enough for him now to give Las Vegas the edge when it comes to landing Cotto's next fight, a much-anticipated rematch with his conqueror Antonio Margarito. New Jersey is also in the running to land the fight but Arum was taken back by the amount of Puerto Ricans in attendance for the Mayorga fight and figures that a Margarito showdown will draw even better numbers.

Cotto suffered his first professional loss to Margarito on July 28th, 2008 inside of the MGM Grand as 10,477 people watched on. Each man has been through their share of turmoil since then, with Cotto suffering a debilitating loss to Manny Pacquiao and Margarito losing twice himself while being caught up in a well-documented hand wrap scandal, but in many ways a rematch between the two fighters would perk just as much interest.

Las Vegas has already enjoyed a prosperous 2011 with the Cotto bout being nestled between separate benchmark performances by Nonito Donaire and Brandon Rios and upcoming bouts such as Marcos Maidana vs. Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley. Timothy Bradley vs. Amir Khan is already rumored for the city and a summer showdown between Cotto and Margarito would fit right in.

Just as Cotto's career has been revived since moving to 154 pounds, so too is it great to see the admiration he has been receiving from his Puerto Rican faithful along the way. Hopefully it follows him to a revenge date with Margarito in Sin City.