Boxing 101: Heart ≠ Stupidity

**TitoFan** · 12-06-2011 02:07 AM

Ok, pay attention class (or just you, VD):

Heart DOES NOT EQUAL Stupidity.

Did you get that? There will be a quiz after I'm done. Now.... as all good professors should, I will proceed to explain myself. Try to follow me as best you can.

You've repeatedly said Cotto "has no heart", basically because he refused to trade haymakers with Margarito in the middle of the ring from the beginning of the fight. Correct? Ok, (and stay with me here)...... that is NOT lack of heart. That is lack of stupidity. Why? do you ask? Bear with me here.

Cotto wanted badly to get his revenge on Margarito, did he not? He felt Margarito had wronged him in their first fight by using the same plaster wraps he tried to use on Mosley. So this was personal.... VERY personal. Now.... Cotto knows several things. He knows Margarito has a tough chin. He knows Margarito took his shots well in their first fight, before bludgeoning Cotto with his plastered fists. He also knows he's 10 the boxer Margarito is. He's faster, he's got better ring generalship, etc, etc. So it stands to reason that Cotto, being the thinking man that he is, wanted to ensure that he didn't get caught cold in an early exchange with Margarito and throw away his chances of getting that revenge. He wanted to make SURE he could pound on Margarito and punish him.

So...... his strategy (again, part of boxing) was to box Margarito in the first few rounds... pound him while he was avoiding Margarito's shots (oh, BTW, a pause here just to refresh your memory that boxing is supposed to be about hitting WITHOUT getting hit). Not going too fast for you, am I sport?

Anyway, once Cotto tasted some of Margarito's punches and realized that MARGARITO AIN'T SHIT WITHOUT HIS PLASTER WRAPS, he then began stepping it up and got into some exchanges with Margarito. He would've maybe finished him off in the last few rounds, but the referee (damn him) humanely stopped it before Margarito became totally blind.

So tell me sport........ where in blazes do you get the deluded notion that Cotto has no heart?

**captainanddew** · 12-06-2011 02:52 AM

people confuse heart with a great chin.

Margarito doesn't show great heart, he has shown a great chin. He can take the shots that others can't take. He was born with it.

Cotto is accused of not having heart because he took knees in the first fight. Which is a joke. He has heart, as he was getting beat the fuck up for quite a while before taking the knees. Cotto can't change the fact that his chin isn't very good.

Those that accuse Cotto of having no heart or guts need to watch the Clottey fight again. Cotto scored a knockdown in round 1 and had won at least 3 of the first 4 rounds on every card, meaning he was clearly up 4 pts. Cotto was cut by an accidental headbutt and it was examined. All he had to do was claim he couldn't see and it would have been stopped, gone to the cards, and he'd get a win. But he fought the entire fight with blood coming from the cut because he didn't want to win the fight by just saying stop it.

**TitoFan** · 12-06-2011 03:01 AM

Originally Posted by captainanddew

people confuse heart with a great chin.

Margarito doesn't show great heart, he has shown a great chin. He can take the shots that others can't take. He was born with it.

Cotto is accused of not having heart because he took knees in the first fight. Which is a joke. He has heart, as he was getting beat the fuck up for quite a while before taking the knees. Cotto can't change the fact that his chin isn't very good.

Those that accuse Cotto of having no heart or guts need to watch the Clottey fight again. Cotto scored a knockdown in round 1 and had won at least 3 of the first 4 rounds on every card, meaning he was clearly up 4 pts. Cotto was cut by an accidental headbutt and it was examined. All he had to do was claim he couldn't see and it would have been stopped, gone to the cards, and he'd get a win. But he fought the entire fight with blood coming from the cut because he didn't want to win the fight by just saying stop it.

Good point on Margarito and his chin. People DO confuse that with having a great heart. Totally unrelated. As for Cotto, people tend to forget that Cotto throughout his career has taken on the most difficult of opponents, and given it his all. He was in an all-out war with Ricardo Torres, and came close to being KO'ed himself, before he KO'ed Torres. He was in a war with Zab Judah. He was in the war you mentioned with Clottey. He's been bloodied, battered.... and always continues trying.

Against Margarito (1st fight) it was another story. Cotto was clearly dominating the fight, which took a sudden turn for the worse (for Cotto) in the 6th or 7th round. The sudden-ness of the turnaround, IMO, adds to the suspicion that Margarito was using plaster wraps against Cotto. From being basically unmarked, Cotto went to having a bloody, messed-up face. When he took a knee, he wasn't just quitting just because. He was preserving his health and maybe his life against someone who later turned out was a low-down cheat.

My personal opinion is that people who accuse Cotto of having no heart really don't know shit about boxing. And have obviously never been in the ring.

**Violent Demise** · 12-06-2011 05:45 PM

Again the thread starter misses the point. This really has very little to do with Boxing. I'm thinking that is something we can agree on. It was personal. Cotto's comments showed disgust and pure disdain towards Margarito. Perfectly understandable. It was personal. Get it? P.E.R.S.O.N.A.L. Personal. The man put his life in danger and pretty much mocked him afterwards. Dumbing it down even further for you, its means Margarito almost made Cotto go bye bye and than went Ha Ha afterwards. So with that much hostility and anger towards Margarito, one who think he would want to destroy Margarito. He didn't. What he did was fine if this was a simple boxing match. It wasn't. It was a grudge match set up for revenge purposes. It was personal. And you know it. Cotto told whoever would listen that he was done dirty. Yet when the time came for revenge he failed to take advantage of it. I respect Cotto as a fighter. Hard to respect him as a man. You obviously do cuz he's your man. And in your eyes he does no wrong

**Onix** · 12-06-2011 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by Violent Demise

Again the thread starter misses the point. This really has very little to do with Boxing. I'm thinking that is something we can agree on. It was personal. Cotto's comments showed disgust and pure disdain towards Margarito. Perfectly understandable. It was personal. Get it? P.E.R.S.O.N.A.L. Personal. The man put his life in danger and pretty much mocked him afterwards. Dumbing it down even further for you, its means Margarito almost made Cotto go bye bye and than went Ha Ha afterwards. So with that much hostility and anger towards Margarito, one who think he would want to destroy Margarito. He didn't. What he did was fine if this was a simple boxing match. It wasn't. It was a grudge match set up for revenge purposes. It was personal. And you know it. Cotto told whoever would listen that he was done dirty. Yet when the time came for revenge he failed to take advantage of it. I respect Cotto as a fighter. Hard to respect him as a man. You obviously do cuz he's your man. And in your eyes he does no wrong

I understand exactly what you mean in terms of expecting more of a battle from the opening bell because it was personal so you would think Cotto is going to do everything to just walk up to him and knock him out however you have to keep in mind that it is still his business so he cannot be emotional about it.

Cotto like all fighters has one main goal and that is to win fights so they can get more fights and better money, he has to be a professional about it which he was and when he had the chance he traded a bit to unload some of the personal stuff on Margarito, when he did that at the end of the fight Tony landed some shots and Cotto bloodied a bit and everyone who wanted Tony to win got excited but by that time it was too late as the eye was damaged and it appears Margarito wasnt able to stay strong and agressive the same way as he was in the first fight not to mention a noticeable difference in the way Tony's punches were affecting Cotto...they didnt affect him at all.

Trust me it chaps my ass too to hear these guys talk shit the way they do but again its the fight game you have to stay logical not emotional, Cotto did what any fighter should do in a fight no matter how personal it is for him.

These guys are right about Antonio Margarito, Tony has an incredible chin and all of a sudden he has no pop in his punch. He looked pretty amatuerish in the ring, very slow punches and Cotto still ran from him and he did look like he took some shots that busted him a bit at the end of the night and thats coming from a journeyman like Margarito with no pop in his punch so while in comparison to the first fight Cotto looked amazing, put into persepctive he did pretty good against a shitty fighter with no punch, no speed, and one eye.

I think even TitoFan and ElTerrible can see that their favorite fighter is quickly heading down hill, but he beat Margarito and thats the biggest win he will ever be remembered for, losing and then avenging a loss to a second rate fighter.

**ElTerribleMorales** · 12-06-2011 11:55 PM

you can try and play it any way you want Onix, but Cotto will be remembered for being a 3 weight class champion, who only lost his undefeated streak due to a man who had to cheat to beat him, no matter which way you try and spin it, the fact that Cotto was able to fight at a world level after taking cement to the face for 11 rounds is a bigger accomplishment than ANYTHING that plenty of other "highly" rated fighters have done, it's as simple as this, Cotto is a future HOF'er and Margarito is not

**Violent Demise** · 12-07-2011 01:54 AM

Originally Posted by Onix

Originally Posted by Violent Demise

Again the thread starter misses the point. This really has very little to do with Boxing. I'm thinking that is something we can agree on. It was personal. Cotto's comments showed disgust and pure disdain towards Margarito. Perfectly understandable. It was personal. Get it? P.E.R.S.O.N.A.L. Personal. The man put his life in danger and pretty much mocked him afterwards. Dumbing it down even further for you, its means Margarito almost made Cotto go bye bye and than went Ha Ha afterwards. So with that much hostility and anger towards Margarito, one who think he would want to destroy Margarito. He didn't. What he did was fine if this was a simple boxing match. It wasn't. It was a grudge match set up for revenge purposes. It was personal. And you know it. Cotto told whoever would listen that he was done dirty. Yet when the time came for revenge he failed to take advantage of it. I respect Cotto as a fighter. Hard to respect him as a man. You obviously do cuz he's your man. And in your eyes he does no wrong

I understand exactly what you mean in terms of expecting more of a battle from the opening bell because it was personal so you would think Cotto is going to do everything to just walk up to him and knock him out however you have to keep in mind that it is still his business so he cannot be emotional about it.

Cotto like all fighters has one main goal and that is to win fights so they can get more fights and better money, he has to be a professional about it which he was and when he had the chance he traded a bit to unload some of the personal stuff on Margarito, when he did that at the end of the fight Tony landed some shots and Cotto bloodied a bit and everyone who wanted Tony to win got excited but by that time it was too late as the eye was damaged and it appears Margarito wasnt able to stay strong and agressive the same way as he was in the first fight not to mention a noticeable difference in the way Tony's punches were affecting Cotto...they didnt affect him at all.

Trust me it chaps my ass too to hear these guys talk shit the way they do but again its the fight game you have to stay logical not emotional, Cotto did what any fighter should do in a fight no matter how personal it is for him.

These guys are right about Antonio Margarito, Tony has an incredible chin and all of a sudden he has no pop in his punch. He looked pretty amatuerish in the ring, very slow punches and Cotto still ran from him and he did look like he took some shots that busted him a bit at the end of the night and thats coming from a journeyman like Margarito with no pop in his punch so while in comparison to the first fight Cotto looked amazing, put into persepctive he did pretty good against a shitty fighter with no punch, no speed, and one eye.

I think even TitoFan and ElTerrible can see that their favorite fighter is quickly heading down hill, but he beat Margarito and thats the biggest win he will ever be remembered for, losing and then avenging a loss to a second rate fighter.

Finally someone who comes close to understanding. Cuz really that's what this issue has been all about. Cotto won the fight. Cotto was in control the whole fight. Don't even think it was a bad stoppage when it was stopped. But I don't think he got revenge the way he should of. That's my one issue with him. Hard to call something "getting revenge" when at the end of it all your still the one who took the most damage in the 2 fights you had. He disappointed in that regard. Based on the injustice done to him and the danger his life was placed in he should of tried to put Margarito in a body bag. But he didn't. Call it what you want. Excuse it any way you want. Bottom line is he didn't do it. He didn't even try. Everybody knows it. But his 2 biggest groupies start acting like lil hoez when it gets mentioned. Why? It's a fact