There were many questions as Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto made their way to the ring on Saturday July 26. Which force was stronger, Cotto’s higher skill or Margarito’s relentless pressure? Was it Antonio’s size or Miguel’s ability to fight off the backfoot? In the end, it was Margarito who used all his tools to systemically break down Cotto for a decisive and dramatic stoppage in the 11^th round.

As many predicted, Cotto came out in round one boxing well of the backfoot. Using quick lateral movement, the WBA champion bounced quick hook flurries off Margarito’s head. The challenger was showing cautious respect early, and Cotto used that and his quickness to double up left hooks to Antonio’s head along with a hard straight right. Still, Margarito showed signs of things to come by landing two left uppercuts.

Round two saw the Tijuana Tornado pick up the pace. He walked through hook bombs to corner Cotto and strafe him with uppercuts and hooks to the body. Seeking to gain space and respect, Cotto immediately fired back with hooks and uppercuts of his own to the head before backpedaling straight into a long right from Antonio. Forced to fight, Cotto cracked a hard left hook off Margarito’s head, who still pressed forward. He repeated the feat again to close out the round. Cotto paid a price for his stand, returning to his corner with a bloody nose and a cut on his left eyelid.

In round three Cotto went back to using his superior lateral movement to counter off the ropes with hooks and then move away. However, Margarito continued pressing, this time behind the jab to punish Cotto against the ropes with body shots. While the punches weren’t landed flush and flashy like Cotto’s, the challenger’s punches downstairs were landing with heavy authority. Possibly seeking to buy time, Cotto complained twice of low blows from Margarito, which resulted in a warning from referee Kenny Bayless.

Rounds four and five saw much of the same pattern. Early on Cotto outboxed Margarito safely and scored heavy with clean counters hooks to the head from outside.  In the fifth, Margarito caught Cotto with an overhand right, causing the Puerto Rican star to retaliate with an uppercut. Not done, he followed up with a short flurry before landing a left hook and another snapping uppercut. Showing good defense, Cotto picked off two hard shots from Margarito against the ropes before twisting his body to dodge three successive overhand shots to conclude the fifth.

Margarito’s corner chastised him for waiting too much, and implored him to set up his shots better and not focus on the one knockout punch. Heeding those words, the challenger started the sixth more composed, even after getting caught early with a right-left hook combo to the head. Bullying Cotto to the ropes, Margarito exclusively worked the body and particularly scored with a painful left hook that was ignored by the HBO team. Here, the effect the punches were having of each fighter became more pronounced. Margarito remained unfazed while Cotto’s face started to show discouragement as he continued trying to fend off the unwavering body attack.

Margarito smelled blood and came on even stronger in round seven. Cotto’s movement began to labor, and Magarito continued his excellent hook body attack against the ropes. Now Cotto’s hands began to drop, which allowed the challenger to badly hurt the WBA champion with three left and one right uppercut.

Cotto attempted to fight off his attacker like he did so many times before against the likes of Ricardo Torres and Zab Judah, but Margarito would not move and punished Cotto with more uppercuts and hooks to the body. Switching southpaw, clinching and throwing sporadic combos saved Miguel from tasting the canvas as the round ended.

Now bleeding from the nose and mouth, Cotto started the eighth by boxing and staying away from Antonio’s power. With his lateral movement returning, Cotto was very successful and snapped Margarito’s head back with counters between Margarito’s punches. In a psychological tactic, Margarito would gingerly trot towards Cotto after getting hit to emphasize he wasn’t being hurt.

In round nine Margarito was more than happy to trade punches, but it was Cotto who did his best to retreat and try to create space. Tired, Cotto began going straight back allowing the Tijauna Tornado to do more great work in the corners to Miguel’s body and head. Now, the champion was noticeably being moved physically by the damage of punches. Sensing Cotto was weakening, Margarito’s corner stressed to him to pick up the speed of his punches going into the championship rounds.

At the start of round ten Cotto looked to fight in spurts and run out the clock, with Margarito in hot pursuit. For the majority of the round, Cotto successfully maintained distance at mid-range to land thudding combinations to the head of Margarito. But the challenger’s constant pressure again gave dividends at the :11 second mark when a flurry of hooks and uppercuts again badly hurt Cotto. Only a wise clinch and the time running out saved the champion from being stopped.

Now debilitated to the point where he could no longer move, Cotto began making his last stand in the eleventh with powerful straight rights and left hooks that Margarito barely blinked at. The challenger continued his non-stop punching and caught Cotto with a left and right uppercut causing him to take a knee with 1:39 remaining.

An absolute bloody mess, Cotto bravely rose immediately to take an eight count and face his fate. He landed the best hooks he could muster, and clinched when he saw once again they had no effect. Completely spent, he backed up from the pursuing Magarito and took another knee before getting hit again, prompting his corner to throw in the towel with :55 seconds remaining.

Antonio Margarito proved many wrong, including myself, who thought Cotto could weather the late storm to eek out a decision. This was a great win for Antonio, who slowly broke down the former champion and showed that his chin is absolute granite. Nothing Cotto threw all night hurt him.

Margarito is already being praised on message boards for his constant pressure and non-stop punching, but he should also get credit for his great defense to the body. Cotto, a great body puncher, could find no openings to Margarito’s torso due to the new champ’s elbows being tucked tightly and his long arms. Occasionally in the fight you saw Cotto pushed forward looking for the body shot only to realize there weren’t any openings.

In the post-fight interview, Margarito called out Oscar De La Hoya, as everyone does. While it would be a great fight, I doubt Oscar would want such a taxing fight to end his career, especially since the possibly of a loss would be very high. Still, the Golden Boy has taken on most of the biggest challenges available to him, so it remains to be seen.

Years ago, Floyd Mayweather bluntly told Margarito he was making smart decisions, and that the Mexican vet should follow his lead. He also promised that if Margarito kept winning he would get a shot as the potential fight between them would be bigger down the road.

What Floyd said made sense, but the only problem now is that Money May is retired. Could the buzz from Margarito’s performance be enough to entice Mayweather out of retirement? We’ll have to wait until the PPV numbers come back.

And let’s not forget Paul Williams, who recently regained his WBO title and outpointed Margarito last year. An obvious unification bout should be a top agenda for both their promoters.

As for Miguel Cotto, let’s not start with the cries of overrated and that he quit. The man fought his heart out to the best of his boxing ability, offensively and defensively. He deserves a lot of respect for his effort. However, the HBO team went overboard by acting is if a funeral had just occurred. The shots of Cotto’s crying wife and son, along with the ending montage and Jim Lampley holding back tears was a little much.

Lacy Escapes with Decision, Decides to Retire

Last Wednesday July 23 former champion Jeff Lacy returned for what was supposed to be an exhibition bout against journeyman Epifanio Mendoza. Instead, the fight was a life and death war with Lacy nearly being KO’d in the second and eighth rounds despite scoring a knockdown in the fourth.

After escaping with an unpopular majority decision, Lacy announced his retirement due to what he considers unfair terms in a potential fight with Jermain Taylor. For his last fight, Lacy received a purse of $550,000. For the proposed Taylor bout, he was offered $500,000.

“What do I look like fighting a fight of that caliber for $500,000 when I have more to risk that anything,” Lacy fumed to the Tampa Tribune. “I feel like Taylor needs me more than I need him and what do I look like fighting that fight for $500,000 and risking my life in there like I did Wednesday night because the referee is not on top of this guy hitting me in the back of the head.”

It seems Lacy forgot to mention that it was more so the repeated uppercuts on the inside over ten rounds that really hurt him in that bout. Watching that fight, it’s clear the combination of the torn rotator cuff on his left arm, the inactivity, and the Calzaghe beating have robbed the former rising star of his abilities. His balance, punching power, and stamina were all fell short in that fight. It’s probably best we don’t see Lacy in there with Taylor. Watch the full fight and judge for yourself:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Judah-Clottey on Tap for August 2

This Saturday HBO has a promising matchup between Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) and Joshua Clottey (34-2, 20 KOs) for the IBF welterweight title. Due to Zab’s documented history of fading and losing focus in the second half of fights, Clottey will be the favorite. But, if Zab can keep his focus he has a shot of pulling this off since he has a marked speed advantage.

Then again, haven’t we been saying that for the past couple years about Zab? Prediction here is the more durable Clottey by decision. On Showtime, Vic Darchinyan (29-1-1, 23 KOs) will look to get back into title contention by defeating Dimitri Kirilov (29-3-1, 9 KOs).