By James Slater: It’s no secret that Miguel Cotto, the reigning WBA light-middleweight champion, has wanted a rematch with Antonio Margarito, the first man to have beaten him as a pro, for some time now. It’s also no secret that the Puerto Rican’s promoter, Bob Arum, has had his eye on making the return fight for some time himself. The word around the net (and according to Boxing News in the U.K) is that a working date of July 16th is close to being finalised; the only thing to be confirmed is the venue.
The rematch of the July 2008 battle has about as intriguing a plotline as any fight you could come up with today. Fans everywhere, casual and hardcore alike, know all about the “loaded gloves” accusation hanging over the Mexican’s head. Caught (his trainer anyway) trying to put on hand wraps that had been hardened with an illegal substance ahead of his losing fight with “Sugar” Shane Mosley in January of 2009, “Tony” may or may not have got away with the same trick in the Cotto fight; which he won by upset 11th-round TKO. Certainly Cotto believes Margarito cheated against him, and that is why he was able to win.
Now, this summer, the fans, and Cotto, will get the chance to see if the disgraced Mexican can prevail with legal gloves – is Margarito a “Mexi-can,” or a “Mexi-can’t?”
Since that shocker of a rumble three summers ago, the two warriors have suffered mixed fortunes. Margarito went on to that even bigger upset with Mosley, which he lost, and then, after coming back after a period of suspension, he was hammered in quite brutal fashion by Manny Pacquiao. Cotto took a break after suffering his first pro loss, before coming back to capture the WBO 147-pound belt. Wins over Michael Jennings and Joshua Clottey preceded a late-round stoppage loss to Pac-Man; another fight that saw “Junito” ship heavy punishment. Since then, Cotto has seen off Yuri Foreman and, last weekend, Ricardo Mayorga. Most fans and experts seem to think Cotto has more left at this point than does Margarito. We will find out in July.
Margarito, unlike Cotto, has yet to prove he can come back from a hammering at the hands of the reigning Pound-for-Pound king and win over a decent name or names. We just don’t know how badly the November 2010 beating the 33-year-old took will affect him in the short and long term. Cotto, arguably beaten up as badly by Pac-Man as Margarito was, showed against Foreman and the Nicaraguan Wildman that he certainly has something left. But will Margarito ever be the same again?
Cotto has improved his skill level under the tutelage of new trainer Emanuel Steward, going back to his early days boxing as apposed to trying to out-strength and out-power his opposition. Margarito, as he showed in the Pacquiao fight, is the same old, try and wear you down, come on strong late in the fight, slow but strong warrior he always was. Margarito is what he is; he isn’t going to learn how to box as well as Cotto is able to this late in his career. Basically then, Margarito will try and summon up the type of effort that has seen him walk through punches and come on to break a guy down late on.
A classic example of a big fight come that will come down to who has the most left, Margarito-Cotto II could end one of two ways. Either Margarito will prove yet again that he is too strong, mentally and physically, for Cotto and he wins in a similar way to the last time; or Cotto, with his patient, even improved boxing style, outclasses his former conqueror and extracts his revenge with a points win. Unless he has nothing at all left in the tank (a possibility), Margarito doesn’t figure to get stopped by Cotto. But if he CAN still summon up the type of performance he was capable of pre-Mosley, Margarito just might be able to stop Cotto. Again!
“Repeat or Revenge” is a tagline that has been used to hype a big fight before. This is a shame, because such a line would suit this upcoming rumble perfectly!