MARGARITO KO'S COTTO IN 11TH

July 26, 2008 - by Ron Borges | Photos by Will Hart

LAS VEGAS - All frustration of the wasted years lost while more high profile fighters refused to face him spilled out in a torrent of fury Saturday night as Antonio Margarito settled many old scores, all at the expense of Miguel Cotto.

For 11 rounds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Margarito stalked the WBA welterweight champion, taking all Cotto threw at him and matching it with a relentlessness that broke Cotto down in the way he had done to so many others on nights that belonged to the champion.

This one clearly did not. That was evident by midway in a fight that was close on the scorecards but not if one looked at Cotto's face. It was bloodied early and badly swollen late as Margarito kept beating him down until the champion finally imploded, twice taking a knee in the 11th round until his uncle and trainer, Evangelista, leapt onto the ring apron and stopped the bout. He had acted none too soon.

"Pressure, pressure, pressure,'' Margarito (37-5, 27 KO) said after the stoppage. "That was the plan. I knew he was a better boxer but I am the heavier puncher.

"That was the game plan. Come out aggressive early, pressure him and knock him out. I got him with body shots and then I hit him in the head and knocked him out.''

Four inches taller and with a six-inch reach advantage, Margarito was simply too big and too strong for Cotto. The champion's hand speed advantage was evident from the outset but even when he landed crisply he never once was able to shatter the iron-willed discipline of the challenger in front of him.

When a man keeps coming forward no matter what you hit him with, that is a problem not easily solved and last night Cotto never was able to.

"I trusted my preparation,'' Margarito said. "Cotto is obviously a strong fighter but slowly the tornado rumbled. I told the knockout would come and the knockout came. "Once the sixth round came it was my time to press the action. He was getting weaker and I was getting stronger.''

Cotto's WBA title belt entered the ring first, along with the Puerto Rican flag, both arriving to a tepid response from the highly partisan crowd of 10,477. When the image of Margarito flashed on the Jumbotron screens the cheering was lust-filled and bellicose and one thing was clear - the challenger controlled the crowd. But could he control the champion?

As it turned out he did it with his refusal to even acknowledge Cotto's speed or power in the early rounds when the champion was snapping his head back with upper cuts on the inside and a stinging jab Margarito could not seem to avoid.

Although Cotto was scoring, Margarito kept walking forward like a force that would not be stopped. After so many years having been denied his moment against the sport's biggest names like Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., the two-time welterweight champion (WBO and IBF) simply had become someone so focused that he refused even to notice or acknowledge anything but a desire to win that could not be defeated simply by another man assaulting him.

"This was Margarito's night,'' Cotto (32-1) said before leaving for the hospital to have his badly dented and damaged face examined. "He's an excellent fighter. He did his job better than I did.''

It did not seem that way at the outset as Cotto opened the fight landing a stiff jab and his superior hand speed was quickly in evidence. But as early as the second round Cotto's nose was bleeding and Margarito kept boring in on him, pressuring him wherever he went regardless of how many counter punches he was being hit by.

Margarito again bloodied Cotto's nose midway through the third round with a crisp right hand but Cotto landed a string of short lefts that included two solid uppercuts and he closed the round with a three-punch combination that was accurate and another reminder of his hand speed.

The challenger's relentlessness and iron chin were already on exhibit however as he kept wading in, steadfastly scoring as he did. The champion was using Margarito's relentless against him as best he could, countering his one-dimensional pressure but also slowly feeling the sting of the bigger man's punches.

Margarito is a difficult man to discourage and no matter what Cotto landed he looked at him with the hooded eyes of a cobra and kept pressuring him. The champion slipped and moved for a while but as the fight wore on and he began to wear out, he could not escape what became an inevitability.

"He never hurt me, really,'' Margarito said. "I started slow but I came on once the sixth round started.''

Indeed he did, more and more pinning the retreating Cotto along the ropes and making him pay for all the others who had refused to give him such an opportunity.

This was a war of doggedness until Margarito finally had his first big moment midway through the seventh round when he hurt Cotto, bloodying his nose and mouth and driving him back to the ropes as the crowd roared with animal lust.

Margarito was all over the champion, battering his face in his own corner late in the round as blood flew from the champion's eye, nose and mouth. Cotto remained expressionless but the damage Margarito was doing was now so obvious the challenger smirked as he walked back to his corner.

Cotto was far more defensive thereafter, circling away more and more but finding no escape route. The challenger was now doing significant damage, twice stunning Cotto after pinning him on the ropes with his superior size. The tide was clearly turning now because Cotto, despite all his early success, had been unable to even once discourage his challenger, who kept wading ever forward like a turbulent sea pounding at an ever receding shoreline.

Late in round 10, with Cotto bleeding again from the eye and nose, Margarito nailed him with a left hook that sent him tottering sideways and a two-punch combination behind it that were more glancing blows than solid ones. Had they been flush, Cotto would have reached the floor earlier than he did, although it wasn't long in coming.

A minute into the 11th round Cotto's face suddenly became a mass of red, bloodied and swollen. He was now completely spent and Margarito was all over him, stinging him with a string of solid shots that began with the left uppercut that was always the greatest danger to Cotto.

A flurry behind that uppercut drove the champion to one knee for the first time and when he got up he began to walk straight backwards with his hands at his side, like a man who had fully conceded to his opponent's superiority.

When he got up, Cotto was beaten. His face had been transformed into that of a swollen gargoyle's that had been splattered in red. His eyes flashed the wariness of a beaten animal who knew more was coming from his angry master if someone didn't intercede.

Soon that is what happened. Margarito was all over him again and this time Cotto took a knee before another flurry of punches could find him. Referee Kenny Bayless seemed unsure what to do but Cotto's uncle and trainer did. He leapt onto the ring apron and stopped what had become a massacre in Las Vegas at 2:05 of the 11th round.

Although Cotto and his uncle have been at odds over many things of late, the nephew didn't quarrel with him this time about his decision.