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Cotto Margarito Fight

December 4, 2011 by · Comments Off on Cotto Margarito Fight 

Cotto Margarito Fight, Genuine hatred, like the animus that underwrote Saturday’s rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito at Madison Square Garden, cannot be manufactured by even the shrewdest of boxing’s carnival barkers, try as they might.

And the rancor between the two was never more evident than moments after Cotto finished off a 10th-round TKO of Margarito, defending his WBA super welterweight title before an electric crowd of 21,239 that packed the house for the first boxing card at the renovated arena.

Before ring announcer Michael Buffer could read the official result, Cotto had wandered over toward Margarito’s corner simply to be seen — a rare moment of braggadocio from one of boxing’s classiest and understated champions.

“I wanted him to see me savoring my victory,” Cotto confessed afterward, “with the one eye he had open.”

The four-year blood feud that came to an end Saturday night — we can only pray — traced back to Margarito’s gruesome victory for Cotto’s welterweight championship in 2008. It had been one of the most memorable slugfests in recent memory, but its legitimacy was thrown into question when Margarito was caught attempting to use loaded gloves ahead of his next fight with Shane Mosley, an offense that led to a suspension and nearly a year-and-a-half of inactivity.

In Saturday’s long-anticipated rematch, Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs) badly mistreated Margarito over nine rounds before the ring doctor intervened prior to the 10th.

“I felt extra motivation,” said Cotto, who connected on 210 of 493 punches (43 percent) compared to 147 of 700 for Margarito (22 percent). “I was vindicated. You can see my face now and how I got out of ring in 2008. Draw your own conclusions.”

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