Miguel Cotto vs Antonio Margarito

Miguel Cotto’s unbeaten record and WBA welterweight championship came to an end at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on 26 July 2008, when Antonio Margarito stopped him after two minutes and five seconds of the eleventh round. Before an official attendance of 10,477, the taller Mexican absorbed Cotto’s best work through the opening half of the contest, maintained an unbroken advance and gradually reduced the champion’s room, strength and resistance. Cotto entered with 32 victories from as many contests and was making the fifth defence of the title he had won from Carlos Quintana. Margarito, a former WBO champion who had recently defeated Kermit Cintron for the IBF title before relinquishing it, brought a record of 36 wins and five defeats. Both men weighed 147 pounds, though Margarito held marked advantages in height and reach. Cotto was the two-to-one favourite.

Cotto made the better beginning. He moved briskly around Margarito, planted his feet long enough to deliver quick combinations and then turned away before the challenger could reply. Margarito followed steadily but was slow in bringing his hands into position, allowing Cotto to score with left hooks and straight right hands. The champion continued in the second round to meet Margarito directly before moving off at an angle. However, a right hand drove him towards the ropes about a minute into the session. Margarito worked increasingly towards the body, while Cotto answered with several left hooks and finished the round strongly. Blood was already visible from Cotto’s nose, but his speed and accuracy gave him the cleaner work. In the third, he mixed movement with short exchanges at close quarters, despite the bleeding nose and a small cut near the left eye. Referee Kenny Bayless twice warned Margarito for low punches as he persisted with his attack downstairs.

Margarito began closing the distance more effectively in the fourth. A right uppercut found Cotto as the challenger pressed towards the body, but the champion remained composed and continued to strike first. Cotto boxed particularly well in the fifth, moving laterally, stopping to deliver combinations and escaping before Margarito could set himself. The Mexican nevertheless landed a straight right in the final seconds, which briefly unsettled Cotto. Margarito tried to follow it with further punches, but Cotto avoided them before the bell. Although the champion’s cleaner blows were winning rounds, they produced little visible effect upon Margarito, who walked through repeated combinations without altering his pace or abandoning his method.

The sixth marked the beginning of a change in the contest. Cotto was still the more accurate man and continued to land in combinations, but Margarito was drawing closer and forcing him to work at a higher rate. The challenger threw 107 punches during the round and began finding Cotto more often with power shots at shorter range. Early in the seventh, a left hook to the body put Cotto on the defensive. Cotto answered with a right hand that checked Margarito momentarily, but the Mexican resumed his advance and forced the champion to hold. Margarito threw 130 punches in the round, including more than 100 power punches. His uppercuts became especially damaging as Cotto was driven towards the ropes, and the bleeding from the champion’s nose increased. Cotto continued to land sharply, but the exchanges were now being fought at Margarito’s preferred distance.

Cotto’s corner instructed him to remain away from the ropes before the eighth round. He obeyed for much of the session, circling and countering as Margarito pursued him, though the challenger trapped him briefly in a corner during the closing half-minute. Cotto escaped, but his movement required increasing effort and his pauses grew longer. In the ninth, he alternated between orthodox and southpaw stances, attempting to disturb Margarito’s rhythm and create new angles for his counters. He continued to land the neater punches, particularly with the jab and left hook, yet Margarito showed no discouragement. Every exchange ended with the challenger stepping forward and Cotto giving ground. The champion’s punches remained accurate, but the difference in physical condition was becoming apparent: Margarito appeared capable of maintaining the same pressure, while Cotto’s legs and breathing were beginning to betray the strain.

The pattern continued through the tenth. Cotto moved, countered and tried to prevent Margarito from setting his feet, but the ring had become progressively smaller for him. During the last 15 seconds, Margarito closed rapidly and landed a left hook, a left uppercut and a right hand, driving Cotto against the ropes. The champion returned to his corner with his face bloodied and his reserves nearly exhausted. After ten rounds, judges Glen Hamada and Jerry Roth each had Margarito leading by 96–94, while Dave Moretti had the contest level at 95–95. The scoring reflected the division between Cotto’s superior accuracy and Margarito’s mounting pressure, activity and heavier work at close quarters.

Margarito attacked immediately in the eleventh and no longer allowed Cotto sufficient room to recover. Cotto backed towards the ropes as the challenger worked with hooks and uppercuts from both hands. A left uppercut left the champion exposed, after which a right uppercut and two right hands forced him to one knee. Cotto rose at the count, his face heavily marked and blood flowing from his nose and mouth, but Margarito resumed the attack without delay. Cotto retreated across the ring and then sank to his knee a second time without being struck by another punch. As Bayless began the count, Cotto’s uncle and trainer, Evangelista Cotto, climbed onto the apron and signalled surrender by throwing in the towel. Bayless stopped the contest at 2:05, giving Margarito the WBA welterweight championship by technical knockout.

The figures showed how the contest had been decided. Cotto landed 280 of 655 punches, an accuracy rate of 43 per cent, while Margarito connected with 267 of 987, or 27 per cent. Cotto held a considerable advantage with the jab, landing 101 to Margarito’s 30, but the challenger landed 237 power punches against Cotto’s 179 and held a 43–10 advantage in connected punches over the last two rounds. Margarito’s greater volume, body attack and capacity to continue advancing overcame Cotto’s cleaner boxing. Cotto received a guaranteed purse of $3 million, in addition to a share of the pay-per-view proceeds. The defeat was the first of his professional career, while Margarito achieved the most important victory of his own and took his place at the head of the welterweight division. Questions concerning Margarito’s hand wraps arose only later, after illegal inserts were discovered before his 2009 contest with Shane Mosley; no conclusive finding was made that unlawful wraps had been used against Cotto.

Miguel Cotto was one of my favourite fighters around this time. He had beaten Zab Judah and Shane Mosley, and was unbeaten in 32 contests. Margarito had lost to Paul Williams, but he came back by stopping Kermit Cintron in the 6th round with a vicious left hook to the body and entered this fight with a reputation for being almost impossible to discourage. That was the attraction: Cotto was the sharper, more complete boxer, while Margarito was the bigger man with the engine and chin to keep asking questions.

For six rounds, Cotto boxed beautifully. He punched in threes and fours, turned Margarito and made him look slow. But there was a flaw in the plan: Miguel was using too much ground and working too hard for every clean escape. Margarito was losing rounds, but he was shortening the ring. By the seventh, those long uppercuts were coming through the middle, and Cotto’s nose was pouring. Cotto’s accuracy was still excellent, but accuracy means less when the other man walks through everything and makes you fight every second. Margarito threw 130 punches in that seventh round alone.

By the eleventh, Cotto had nothing left in his legs. Margarito trapped him, ripped in the uppercuts and forced him down twice before Evangelista Cotto threw the towel. I thought Margarito broke him physically, not technically. Cotto was the better boxer, but Margarito made it his sort of contest and refused to stop coming.

The illegal-wrap scandal discovered before Margarito fought Shane Mosley will always hang over this result. Nobody proved he loaded his gloves against Cotto, so I will not state it as fact. But once that doubt exists, a victory built upon such severe facial damage can never be viewed quite cleanly again.