Cotto And Margarito To Rematch Next Summer

[Taeth]

IMO this is the only way for Cotto to regain his legacy to its former glory, if he can't beat the guys like Margarito then he doesn't deserve to be in the very top echelon. The greatest fighters always managed to figure out ways to over come bad matchups for them, especially against a fighter of Margarito's caliber, who isn't a bad fighter, but also isn't an ATG.

Basically IMO Vernon Forrest destroyed the invicibility of Mosley, and I am suspecting Margarito might do the same to Cotto.

I definitely think Cotto could win if things get changed, but it might be expecting too much from him. I think Cotto really needs to work on his movement, he needs to get elite sparring partners who will push him to the limit.

Hatton puts all kinds of pressure on his opponents so Floyd got both Baldomir and Ndou who would switch off, with Baldomir and Ndou only going 5 rounds at a time for a total of 20 rounds Mayweather was basically fighting a fresh world class opponent for 20 rounds. Cotto needs to do this.

Gotta tell ya,I think Cotto can do very well in future.Margarito is indeed no ATG,he never pretended to be but stylistically and more so physically....he is too much for Cotto.I just don't see all the top sparring in the world translating to victory in rematch.One thing that stands out more and more to me is not the styles,the punch selections,the footwork......but the sheer Physicality of they're first fight.Cotto was effected in so many subtle and equally obvious ways where as Cotto.....try as he might with great pin point boxing could not stand his ground and/or have a noticeable effect on Tony in the least.The disparity in terms of physical taxing toll was huge. I think the 1st result will be duplicated.

I disagree, I think that Margarito will probably win the second fight as well, but Cotto gave up. I've seen warriors like Holyfield come into the ring and go at it with much bigger opponents, more powerful opponents, but you have to know how to fight them. Margarito IMO never really hurt Cotto with any one punch it was more like what Cotto did to Judah, but even then Margarito wasn't laying COtto out like Cotto layed Judah out. I think Cotto let Margarito's size play a factor.
Here is a small list of things that drastically change the fight
1. Cotto needs to tie Margarito up more. You saw Holyfield do it effectively against Tyson, you saw Hopkins do it plenty of times, you saw Mayweather use it against Hatton. After Cotto dodges a few punches off the ropes he needs come forward off the ropes and tie Margarito up.
2. Cotto staying focused defensively while he on the ropes, as the fight progressed even before he was getting worn down, Cotto was fighting sloppily off the ropes.
3. Cotto needs to not give up space so freely, You can't just give up space for free, its too tiring. There were quite a few times I saw Margarito backing off when Cotto threw combinations, or at least stopped coming forward. Cotto needed to realize he could have expended less energy by actually throwing more punches in the middle of the ring.
4. Cotto can't back straight up, Cotto was backing straight backwards onto the ropes when Margarito's footspeed is so slow Cotto should have been able to get around him laterally.
5. When Cotto would get off the ropes which he did very well for the first half of the fight, did a lot of you notice he wasn't always going back into the middle of the ring? When you get off the ropes its important to make the opponent force you back onto the ropes again.


I personally don't think footwork is that big of an issue I think the biggest things were that Cotto didn't tie Margarito up enough that is key against Tony, and he gave up space too freely which he did against Mosley as well late in that fight.

I honestly think Cotto got to cocky in there, He was outboxing Margarito so emphatically that he underestimated Tony. I don't think he thought Tony could walk through those punches like he did, and I don't think Cotto had a plan B besides countering effectively.