Cotto - Margharito SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

[EddieShredder]

Margharito makes Cotto quit

[lefthook82]

Cotto didnt quit. His corner threw in the towel

Wow. Good win for Margo i thought Cotto would handle him with ease

Paul Williams is looking mighty good right now. He handled Margarito comfortably

[Shirow]

DAMN!

Lederman put it perfectly - It turned from an exhibition of skill to an exhibition of will. Margarito finally just beat the fight out of him. His chin is unbelievable.

[Autobarn]

I thought Margarito would be able to trouble Cotto. The big opening I saw for Tony was that Cotto gets tired and hates to fight at a pace. I figured Tony would take over the middle rounds and then that Cotto would reassert and win on PTS. Margarito showed stunning durability, desire, stamina & persistence.

Cotto showed massive class, countered brilliantly, but could never hold the middle of the ring & could never discourage his man.

What an amazing fight it was. Great to see Margarito do well. He'll get his dues now. I don't think he'll last much longer in boxing however. Twice in a row - Cintron rematch, Cotto - he's walked through massive shots to get the stoppage.

[TerribleTerry]

Margarito walked him down with an unwavering sea of aggression tonight.

His stamina and punch ouput were second to none - as is his chin.

Cotto, depsite moving and countering well over the first half of the fight, just couldn't dent Margarito and I think that is eventually what broke him mentally - Margarito was like a machine in there.

Great, great fight and a deserving win in a major fight for the 'unfashionable' Margarito.

It has never been more clear as to why he always struggled to nail down the defining fights against the divisons elite - who would want to face that??..

[lefthook82]

Can someone please give Williams his due!

He handled Marga comfortably yet Marga STILL gets more ratings than him. Look at how the HBO crew were disrespecting him

How does that work exactly?

Also, Soto got disqaulified for less than that shot that Marga threw on Cotto after he took his first knee

[hitman_hatton1]

great fight.

they both had so much.

lovely countering from cotto that margo just kept eating up.

margo is a serious hombre.

gotta have a rematch.

[lefthook82]

Cant see the basis of a rematch myself. They will have one but I dont know what cotto will do differently

[SticknMove]

Yeah Margarito just wouldn't be denied.

Cotto hit Margarito with some hard clean shots off the backfoot using a lot of side to side movement that won him rounds, but didn't leave a dent. The tenacity of Margarito was incredible and he broke Cotto's will in the end.

Cotto isn't an exceptionally natural backfoot mover but was forced into it by the sheer relentlesness of Margarito. He couldn't stand and trade as Margarito was too strong and fluid with the punch output on the inside.

Great fight.

[chesh]

Great, great fight. To paraphrase a football expression, it was a fight of two halves.

Time for a re-match with Williams, perhaps. I don't agree with Lefthook that Williams handled Margo easily. I scored that one to Margo by a point.

[Shirow]

Cant see the basis of a rematch myself. They will have one but I dont know what cotto will do differently

I agree as Cotto tactics were executed to perfection - constant lateral movement, tidy defence and hard accurate countershots - but it still wasn't enough.
It's probably the biggest money fight out there though as i'm sure Oscar won't want to get his pretty face mangled in his last fight after avoiding it for his whole career.

[Gray-Fox]

Cotto could've won with his tactics, I think the nose injury really got to him.

Can't use enough superlatives for Tony Margarito...happy for him.

This makes Paul Williams look good. Mayweather avoided all of them which doesn't make me happy per se, but then again, I believe he would have beaten them all.

[lefthook82]

I would love to see how Mayweather would handle a Margo but I dont think he has the stamina anymore to keep him off him and he would get stopped. Think if they thought when it was mooted he would have handled him. Margo impressed me with his relentlessness and his chin but he ddint half look dopey as fornicate in there at some points

I think Williams should postpone the move to MW and fight Margo again. Willaims against Quintana just looked like a beast and I think he would do well again

Fair enough@ chesh, thats the great thing about boxing, differing opinions and all that. I thought Williams had no problms with him bar few scares in the last couple of rounds

[Gray-Fox]

I would love to see how Mayweather would handle a Margo but I dont think he ahs the stamina anymore to keep him off him and he would get stopped.

What a silly statement. He's 31 and B-Hop was 42 and still gave Joe a run for his money.

Floyd would be able to get the stamina back easily, and I believe he'd just outbox Marg...if Cotto can outbox him for 6 rounds, then Floyd can for 12.

[lefthook82]

I don't know. He took a lot of breaks against Hatton which he wouldnt be able to do against Marga. And as he would have absolutely 0% chance of stopping Margo and wont commit to combos how does he beat him? Potshot all night! Couple of years ago I would have said yes, not sure now

Dont get me wrong, in terms of skills, technique etc Mayweather is on a different level. But then so was Cotto...

In saying that, those wide looping shots that Marga was landing on Cotto he couldnt land on a 45 year old Mayweather neevrmind a 31 year old version. Those bodyshots however.......

[monkeylegs]

I don't know. He took a lot of breaks against Hatton which he wouldnt be able to do against Marga. And as he would have absolutely 0% chance of stopping Margo and wont commit to combos how does he beat him? Potshot all night! Couple of years ago I would have said yes, not sure now

Dont get me wrong, in terms of skills, technique etc Mayweather is on a different level. But then so was Cotto...

In saying that, those wide looping shots that Marga was landing on Cotto he couldnt land on a 45 year old Mayweather neevrmind a 31 year old version. Those bodyshots however.......

i didnt see him take may breaks with hatton, hatton was on him all the time which was in the end his downfall

[Phenomenal-Nutrition]

Cotto tried to be Mayweather, which worked well for the first 5 rounds, I gave him all of the first 5 and he looked sensational early, but then he started dropping his gloves, stopped throwing enough counters, not getting his shots off and let Margarito impose his will.

If Cotto had looked to get his shots off first instead of waiting to counter he would have backed Margarito up more and been fighting his own usual style

Cotto can beat Margo in an immediate rematch, hes shown hes the superior boxer, he now needs to back it up with the right engine to hold off Margos output and look to beat Margo to the punch. I think the broken nose hurt Cottos stamina too

Whoever had Margo beating Williams must have missed the first 8 rounds. I had Williams winning 9-3, maybe 8-4.

Oh and if Mayweather came back he'd win a tough but wide UD against Margo, slipping and countering all night.

[don't call it a comeback]

I don't know. He took a lot of breaks against Hatton which he wouldnt be able to do against Marga. And as he would have absolutely 0% chance of stopping Margo and wont commit to combos how does he beat him? Potshot all night! Couple of years ago I would have said yes, not sure now

Dont get me wrong, in terms of skills, technique etc Mayweather is on a different level. But then so was Cotto...

In saying that, those wide looping shots that Marga was landing on Cotto he couldnt land on a 45 year old Mayweather neevrmind a 31 year old version. Those bodyshots however.......

Cotto has consistently throughout his career looked brilliant in fights and then got into trouble and then fought his way out of the trouble - on several occasions Cotto has looked hurt in a way that PBF never has. Tonight the difference was that a bigger man just kept hunting Cotto down - a man Cotto could not hurt to get himself out of jail.

Fantastic performance by Margarito but I think PBF is a bad fight for him. PBF will be a lot more difficult to find than Cotto and will fire out even more as Margarito goes in. The way to beat Cotto was there in his previous fights - the blueprint to beat the current version of PBF has yet to be written.

Funnily enough, just as I thought Margarito was the most likely to beat Cotto then I still think that Cotto has the best shot of anyone in beating PBF - you need someone with Cotto's speed and accuracy to beat Floyd. And if Floyd does catch Cotto, I can't see him really hurting Cotto in the way that Margarito did on three occasions tonight. Shame there's no money in the PBF/Cotto fight now so Floyd has a great excuse to stay retired.

[SticknMove]

I don’t think that Cotto tried to do a Mayweather. He used side to side movement anchoring picking spots to deliver accurate hard punches moving off avoiding a trading war for the first few rounds. It worked well for him but perhaps not in way he may have thought coming into the fight – he couldn’t hurt Margarito and then take over.

The telling rounds of the fight, for me were when he chose to remain leg static on the ropes. Margarito busted him up with a barrage of fluid punches that were blocked, missed and landed to body and head. The output in that situation broke Cotto down. Cotto is essentially an economical fighter that wastes little and just couldn’t handle the relentless pressure put on him when it appeared he couldn’t hurt Margarito.

[stujones]

Wow what a fight... fight of the year.

I thought Bunce/Dempsey were out of order a tad with their analysis - try to suggest that he (Cotto) quit. No it was simply a punch/es in the 7th round that Cotto never fully recovered from and he showed GREAT heart to last into the 11th. Did I think fighting the way he did that he would make it to the 11th - Margarito was gutting the ring down well from the second and as some people suspect was so much physically stronger than Cotto.

I actually thought that this fight enhanced both guys reputation. Scrap the thought that Cotto is chinny, and scrap the thought that Margarito gets outboxed when he steps up.

Paul Williams' reputation is enhanced and I have to say looks like Zab Judah might be the hardest punching Welter out there.

[DG.]

At last!!!!!

A contest that lived up to expectations!

I did not like Cotto's back peddling. I know he does it all the time but it is not good to watch, imo.

Margarito was superb!

[Neri]

Nice to see some knowledgable views on the fight. If you go on the current scene there is just so much rubbish.

I thought Cotto got his tactics just about perfect to beating Margarito, boxing on the backfoot, moving side to side and countering with some excellent left hooks, some are saying he should have traded with Antonio but that would have spelt disaster for Miguel, probably within the first few rounds. Cotto just wilted under Margarito's astonishing onslaught, he never stopped coming and Cotto just couldn't keep up with it. Hard to keep to the tactics when you have no steam left. Cotto's stock is unaffected by the defeat imo, it was a great fight, huge respect to both.

I had Cotto winning the fight 97-94 at the time of the stoppage.

[banjo]

I agree Neri, standing and trading with Margarito would be plain foolish.

WHAT A CHIN Margarito has though, I honestly thought he'd eventually wilt under some of Cottos attacks. I'm actually pleased for Margarito as he's made a couple of the clowns on Current Scene eat their words(Red Medicine has really spat his dummy out lol) after they derided Margarito as "garbage" "not fit to lace Cottos gloves" etc.

[m1kee50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrJmgQO8_k

[Eraserhead]

I thought Cotto was boxing beautifully, pretty much right up until the 10th round. His performance in round 5 was incredible. Despite all that, though, Margarito just wouldn't be denied. His chin is ridiculous. Also, when you see a guy actually jogging towards you it must be so soul-destroying. Margarito didn't take a step back all night and just eventually forced Cotto to fight his fight. Was I the only one who had Cotto winning going into the 11th? Even in the really tough, close rounds, I thought Cotto did the cleaner work. I gave Margarito the 2nd, 7th and 10th but that was it. Pivotally, even in the rounds Margarito did lose he made Cotto work for every last point. That's what eventually won the Mexican the fight.