For fight fans everywhere, there
is a very good reason to want to see the rematch this weekend between Puerto
Rico’s Miguel Cotto and Mexico’s Antonio Margarito. That reason is a sense that
justice was somehow skirted by Margarito following the loss of his license in California due
to illegal hand wrap inserts, containing elements of Plaster of Paris his
trainer, Javier Capetillo, inserted prior to Margarito’s 2009 match with Shane
Mosley. The inserts were detected by Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson, prior
to the bout but removed and Margarito was stopped by Mosley in the ninth round.
From that moment on, Margarito has been cast in a shadow of doubt, his career
suspected of being as tainted as the wraps his trainer attempted to embed within
his wraps.
For most boxers, that would be
the end of the story. A subsequent revocation of his and Capetillo’s licenses
by the California State Athletic Commission, a year of
solitude in Mexico and the scorn
and doubt of fight fans everywhere made it seem as if Margarito would never
fight again. But this is boxing and Margarito’s promotional company, Top Rank,
is among the most well-funded and connected in the sport. An independent group decided
after a year to bring him back to Mexico before sending him to the wolf known
as Manny Pacquiao in a 150-pound catchweight bout in Dallas. That fight was even more disastrous
for Margarito than the Mosley fight and the hand wrap scandal combined as he
was battered mercilessly for 12 full rounds en route to nearly losing his sight
in his right eye. While each bout was met with scorn by a segment of fight
fans, both did solid ratings and PPV numbers and many came out to support
Margarito.
Multiple surgeries on his right
eye later and with his career nearly over, Top Rank decided to return to the
match that, for a brief moment in time, had the boxing world celebrating a
warrior like Margarito: a revenge match with Miguel Cotto.
While the rest of the boxing
world looked at Margarito’s alleged crime against Mosley, it was Cotto who
suffered a brutal and bloody loss to Margarito in 2008 who looked at their first
fight with doubt. That fight seemed to turn on a dime despite Cotto being up in
the fight and seemingly landing at will. But by the middle of the fight, his
nose broken by an uppercut, his face becoming a puffy bloody mess, suddenly Cotto
tired out under Margarito’s pressure. By the 11th, Cotto did what no
fighter, much less one in an important Puerto Rico vs. Mexico rivalry match, wanted to
do: he took a knee and submitted.
In the shadow of the hand wrap
controversy, Cotto began questioning everything about their fight. Was there
someone in the dressing room checking the hand wraps? He now says no. Did
Margarito cheat him? A picture showing what appears to be torn or cracked gauze
on Margarito’s left hand in the ring after the fight appears to be evidence
that it is possible.
There was a time when Cotto was
very public about stating he would never give Margarito another payday fighting
him. He seemed incredibly certain. If anyone had a right to be upset or take
that stance, it was Cotto. However, as his career has begun to wind down, the
opponents Cotto can face at 154 pounds become more dangerous for a man not very
big for the weight class. Now with Margarito seemingly fallen off the cliff,
physically, suddenly the fight made a lot of sense.
“Here comes the criminal! Open
the doors to the criminal! I’ve been called a criminal by the man next to me
[Cotto]. I don’t know why. I don’t beat up my family. He can hit
my eye as much as he wants. He hits like a little girl. Super
flyweights hit harder. He will never beat me,” said Margarito at the final
press conference in New York where the fight takes place at Madison Square Garden before a giant Puerto Rican crowd. It
is clear that the “Tijuana Tornado” has fully embraced the bad guy role here.
So while fans and writers call
this rematch a travesty and say Margarito should not only be banned from boxing
but in jail for attempted assault or murder, it is the man who feels he was
cheated out of victory who gets the final say. This, before the justice fight
fans and writers cry for, should be his right. After all, it was Margarito who
took Cotto’s undefeated record from him in a classic brawl that left both men altered
forever- both physically and mentally.
“If you don’t know what a
criminal means, you can look it up in the dictionary. It’s someone who uses a
weapon,” Cotto said coldly.
For Margarito, it is a chance
to prove that the first fight was no trick but instead, a matter of styles with
Cotto’s being perfect for his.
“When he feels my first punch,
he’s going to be in real problems,” said Margarito. “I know Cotto’s style and
his style is perfect for me. He stands in front of me. I am a
pressure-style fighter. That’s what I do best and that’s what I’m going to
do on Saturday.”
For Cotto, it is a chance for
revenge, redemption and cheater’s justice as he promised to “take advantage of
that eye the way [Margarito] took advantage of me with the plaster.”
Sometimes, in a sport this
brutal and unforgiving, justice is best left to the warriors. For the rest who
sit on the sidelines without hope of ever knowing what these men and women of
the ring go through, it is best to sit, watch and wonder how they do what they
do. Will Cotto find his answers about that July 2008 night? Who can say? Will Margarito’s
style simply prove to be a terrible match for Cotto? Perhaps. What is certain
is that the demons that have haunted Miguel Cotto for years regarding this fight
will be put to the test and in a way, put to rest come Saturday night.
