This coming Saturday, July 26, 2008, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will meet at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to decide who the best welterweight in the world is. The fight will be shown live on HBO PPV. They will also do their best to add to the already historic Puerto Rican vs. Mexican rivalry, arguably, one of the best in boxing, that reached it’s apex nearly 27 years ago on August 21, 1981, with the Salvador Sanchez vs. Wilfred Gomez fight. Sanchez won that fight by stopping Gomez in the eighth round., but there have been plenty of others before and since; Gomez’ destruction of Carlos Zarate on October 28, 1978, stopping him in the 5th round, or Julio Cesar Chavez’ 11th round knockout of Edwin Rosario in 1987. Oscar De La Hoya, Mexican American, not a Mexican national, and Felix Trinidad were also a part of that rivalry. Trinidad won their fight in 1999, with what many consider, myself included, a controversial decision. The fight itself while entirely not great, did have a lot of anticipation leading up to it. With everything I’ve seen so far, this fight has all the potential to add to this rivalry. This is really a pick’em fight and all things being equal it may become a battle of attrition. It may come down to who wants it more.
Margarito’s loss to Paul Williams can come back to haunt him or it can drive him to a victory. If he remembers why he lost and has learned from it, maybe he can win. I was there the night he lost to Williams, and without taking anything away from Williams, who I thought won the fight, Margarito gave a lot away simply by his inaction. He waited too long to get started, and during the rounds he waited too long to get off. If he waits for Cotto, he loses. Margarito has won 36 of his 42 fights, 26 by knockout, losing five of them. All of his losses, with the exception of his loss to Daniel Santos, in 2004, happened fairly early in his career.
Cotto on the other hand has never tasted defeat, and that too can either work for him or against him, though I have yet to see a chink in his armor. If he has taken Margarito for granted, even an iota, because of his loss to Williams, he loses. Both men are literally at the top of their game right now. Physically, Margarito may have a slight edge but I don’t know if that really factors in with someone as strong as Cotto. Cotto has won 32 out of 32, with 26 knockouts. So far, the word lose is not in his vocabulary, either in Spanish or English.
My hope for the night is a good fight with no controversy and a clear cut winner, no more, no less.
Mexican - Puerto Rican Rivalry
The above video is courtesy of warrkrymez and Youtube.com.
1 comment:
I'm going with Margarito.I think he'll get off to a faster start-and be able to hold Cotto off down the stretch.Both guys were impressive in their last fight's;particularly Margarito,who stopped Kermit Cintron for the second time.In advance,I'll be very surprised if there aren't one...or two rematches;that's the kind of fight I expect.
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