Last year Miguel Cotto was a healthy favorite to beat Antonio Margarito for many of the same reasons that Manny Pacquiao is favored to defeat him on November 14th. Cotto was viewed as the faster and more accomplished boxer with excellent power and an undefeated record. He was floating in the upper regions of everyone’s P4P list and there was a kind of silence before a deafening roar that prevailed amongst analysts and aficionados alike. Cotto was one fight away from superstardom. In taking that fight he was also viewed as a fighter who didn’t shy away from a challenge and who wanted to prove to HIMSELF that he was the best.. We as a fan base tend to admire a fighter who takes that stance and we respected Miguel Cotto. It’s a staple of a confident and determined champion and its becoming exceedingly rare as the years go by due largely to the financial agenda of modern fighters. You’ll hear many an old timer gripe about today’s “world” champions compared to those of an era gone by asserting that “their” guys were keenly focused on “cleaning out” their division. Well, as we all know that assessment is only partially true. But we certainly can’t dispute the fact that it happened more in past generations than it does now. In today’s world too many champions are defending their belt without ever trying to unify the championship and aside from the Super Six tourney we’re unlikely to know who the TRUE champion is in any given division. Instead we get a lot of posturing in the press and fighters avoiding the question. We’ll, the Miguel Cotto - Antonio Margarito fight wasn’t going to eliminate that argument but it was the closest thing to a response that we were going to get and we WANTED it. Badly! It was a reminder that modern champions sometimes DO want to prove to themselves that they’re actually #1. They sometimes DO want to prove to their public that they will take the most “dangerous” fights available. At the time it was the best fight that could be made at welterweight and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It was GREAT! READ MORE
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