BLOG BOX

Antonio ‘The Avenging Angel’ Margarito

By Distinio Lois, Jr.

He Came, He Saw, He Conquered. That was Antonio ‘The Tijuana Tornado’ Margarito this past Saturday in the MGM Grand Arena, LV, when he knocked out undefeated W.B.A. 147 pound champion, Miguel Angel Cotto, in the 11th round of a possible candidate for ‘Fight of the Year’.

Antonio Margarito with his ‘I’m coming forward to get you, destroy you, and knock you out attitude’, proved the boxing experts (me included) wrong— when we felt that the super-cold destructive hard punching, well-planned tenacity and body punching of Miguel Cotto would beat the warrior mentality of Antonio Margarito.

The irony of this prediction (Cotto’s victory) actually worked for the first 6 rounds, but you began to see the reversal of fortunes, when Margarito round by round, like a run-away freight train and true to his trainer, Javier ‘The Mexican Patton’ Capetillo’s words, took Miguel Cotto apart and to Hell (but not back).

Margarito kept coming forward as he stated he would, throwing punches in bunches, wearing down a tired and retreating, but still counter punching Cotto. In between rounds you could hear Capetillo telling Margarito, “You got him, keeping going forward like we planned and you will knock him out soon.” Was he ever so right on target.

Miguel Cotto was so badly beaten and bloodied, that he actually did a ‘Zab Judah’ by taking a knee twice to get away from the Margarito onslaught. Cotto didn’t have the resiliency or strength, like in the Torres fight, to get off the canvas and pull victory out of defeat. Miguel was done even though at times in those later rounds he continued to fight back with guts but feebly, causing referee Kenny Bayless hesitation in stopping the carnage. The mind strength of one man was broken by the physical strength of the other, who was not, at long last to be denied his moment of glory.

What is a mystery to me, at least, is the fact that Cotto, a known vicious body punisher failed even once (unless I missed it) to attack Margarito’s body as many of us expected. He went head hunting the entire fight, and his body attack went missing without a trace, just like Oscar’s jab when he fought Mayweather.

Another mystery (with no answer) is why Cotto sat on the ropes, rope-a-doping and entrapping himself, where he actually gave Margarito the green light to give him the worst of the beating and allowing himself to become a human punching bag in plain view of his wife Melissa, and son Miguel, Jr., who were traumatized. I wish that promoters would banish family, especially children from boxing events, to keep them from seeing their fathers beaten, win or lose.

It was not a pretty sight even to us non-relatives of Cotto to see his bloody face and at the same time see him spitting out so much blood in between rounds like a broken water faucet. Remember, that this is the hurt business, not America’s  pastime— baseball. Take note of the recent tragedy of Oscar Diaz, who is still in a coma, and the bloody facial mask of Miguel Cotto after the 11th round when his trainer and uncle, Evangelista Cotto mercifully threw in the towel of defeat.

Antonio Margarito answered the boxing world’s question, as to why Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. astutely refused to fight him despite an offered 8 million dollar purse each. And Cotto took him on. Was Cotto so into himself, because of victories over Zab Judah, Shane Mosely, Alfonso Gomez, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. refusal to fight him, that he thought he was Superman. If that is the case, he didn’t realize that Antonio Margarito was his kryptonite.

In the final analysis, I am disturbed as to why Cotto, like all other losing fighters before him, did not display grace and sportsmanship and stay in the ring for a post fight interview. The measure of a man is what he will do to bounce back from defeat after being accustomed to winning, like the great pound for pound ring legend, Sugar Ray Robinson, or even for that matter, Antonio Margarito, who wallowed in the shadows of defeat and conquered boxing glory with this sweet victory.

Playing the role of an advisor to Miguel Cotto, I would suggest very strongly that he take a long rest, spend time with his family, and assess his boxing fu
ture, because he still indeed has a future in boxing, although this defeat was brutal.

The problem that I see for Antonio Margarito’s boxing future is that now no one will really want to fight him, forcing others to do a ‘Mayweather’ and retire, unless it’s Paul Williams, who beat him once before.It seems to me that Margarito may be forced to move up to the junior middleweight level where he once resided to find opponents.

On Saturday, July 26, 2008, we saw the bull destroy the undefeated matador in the Corrida! “OLE”! 

(Photos by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)