Cotto delivers punishing payback to Margarito
NEW YORK -- Miguel Cotto battered a one-eyed Antonio Margarito over nine lopsided rounds, then won by technical knockout Saturday amid confusion in the corner before the start of the 10th round at Madison Square Garden.
Cotto (37-2-0) avenged his loss to Margarito three years ago. With the New York crowd going wild for the Puerto Rican, Cotto he was never seriously threatened and retained his 154-pound title.
Margarito beat Cotto in July 2008, only to have his career and reputation tarnished when he used illegal hand wraps before a loss to Shane Mosley. Margarito didn't box again for more than a year.
He needed surgery on a fractured orbital bone after a loss to Manny Pacquiao last year and considered retirement. The New York State Athletic Commission didn't license Margarito until Nov. 22 after ordering another examination of his eye.
Cotto took quick aim on the eye, which was swollen shut in the seventh round.
Cotto believed Margarito also used illegal hand wraps in their first fight and claimed he had the photos to prove it.
Cotto stared down Margarito in his corner after the bout was stopped.
"Just to look at him and taste my victory on him," Cotto said. "He means nothing to me. I'm here with all my crowd and all my people. He means nothing to me."
The Tijuana Tornado stopped Cotto in the 11th round in Las Vegas in their first meeting. Cotto said he long resisted a rematch because he didn't want money going to an opponent who didn't fight fair.
Cotto took any issues of legality out of this one from the opening round.
Margarito laughed, smiled, even taunted Cotto after suffering several big blows. His demeanor didn't help him at the end of the seventh, when he sat on his corner stool, his right eye shut.
With one eye, Margarito gamely fought on, hoping for that one brutal blow that could change the fight. Half blind, he never had a chance. Ring doctor Anthony Curreri stopped the fight because of the eye even though three seconds ticked off in the 10th round. The fighters never met in the center of the ring.
