Boxing Perspective: Where Did It Go Wrong For Miguel Cotto?

Although everyone knew that last weekend’s bout with Antonio Margarito would be very dangerous fight for Miguel Cotto, I was of opinion that Cotto’s boxing skills would prevail against the one-dimensional Margarito.

However, when i saw weight-in I was stunned to see how much Margarito appeared to be the bigger man. He was taller, with longer reach and with much bigger torso.

To me, they didn’t appear to be same weight class – even though on scales they both weighted same.

During the first six rounds of the fight, Cotto was outboxing Margarito through his lateral movements, some brilliant defensive moves, and with quick and sharp counterpunching.

In a second part of the fight, two factors that would cause Cotto’s loss, became obvious. Firstly, all the movements, and circle-running started to take its toll on Cotto’s energy levels.

Secondly, none of the punches that he threw on Margarito had much impact. Well, if you can’t hurt your opponent – you are still in fight – provided you have enough energy for all defensive and counter-punching moves to last you entire fight.

But, if you cannot neither hurt, nor outrun your opponent – at some point you will get caught, and that will be “it”.

I still remember the fight between Acelino Freitas and late Diego Corrales, where Corrales was losing round after round and it was only after Freitas expended his energy that Corrales managed to catch him, scoring several knockdowns, and forcing the Brazilian to quit.

In my view, Cotto’s loss did not diminish him much as a fighter – even though his boxing career suffered major setback, especially from marketing point of view, as Cotto was fighting an opponent physically much bigger and stronger, and he deserves full credit for that.

This doesn’t mean to discredit Antonio Margarito in any way. However, he still needs to prove that with his heart, aggression, his granite chin and stamina – he can beat a top-class boxer who is natural to this weight division, and he should look no further than to Paul Williams, the boxer who handed him his most recent defeat.

Unless, of course, some much bigger prize fights take him elsewhere.