Posts Tagged ‘Antonio Margarito’

Official Cotto-Margarito scorecard

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Here it is. SI.com had it 90-81 at the time of the stoppage.


  • Published On Dec 04, 2011
  • Brandon Rios ready for Murray defense

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    NEW YORK — WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios stopped by the SI offices ahead of Saturday’s title defense against England’s John Murray on the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito undercard.

    The irreverent Rios (28-0-1, 21 KOs), widely regarded as the world’s best 135-pounder not named Juan Manuel Marquez, will be looking for his 11th straight victory and 10th consecutive knockout against the 5-to-1 underdog Murray (31-1, 18 KOs).

    The Oxnard, Calif.-based Rios said he’s excited to be fighting in Madison Square Garden for the first time — a longtime dream venue — and hopes to put on a show against Murray, who is coming off the first defeat of his career against Kevin Mitchell in July.

    “If you don’t come prepared, it’s going to be an early night,” Rios said at Thursday’s undercard press conference in Times Square. “If you come prepared, you’re still going down early.”

    – Bryan Armen Graham


  • Published On Dec 02, 2011
  • Notre Dame grad Mike Lee excited for Madison Square Garden debut

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    NEW YORK — Rising light heavyweight prospect Mike Lee (7-0, 4 KOs) paid a visit to the SI offices ahead of Saturday’s fight against Allen Medina on the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito undercard.

    Lee, who graduated from Notre Dame with a 3.8 grade point average and a degree in finance, turned down job offers from Wall Street to pursue a career in prizefighting — and so far the results have been promising.

    A native of Chicago, Lee’s star is beginning to take flight as his career moves forward. He’s won four fights in 2011, including a September victory over Jacob Stiers on the Notre Dame campus. He starred in a series of Subway commercials and draws noticeable masses of Fighting Irish fans to his fights.

    While Lee’s fight Saturday with Medina isn’t slated for HBO’s pay-per-view telecast, SI.com will be live-streaming the non-televised bouts ahead of the 9 p.m. ET start time.

    – Bryan Armen Graham


  • Published On Dec 02, 2011
  • Experts’ picks for Cotto-Margarito II

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    Super welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (left) will be out for revenge against Antonio Margarito (right) when they meet Saturday in New York City. (AP)

    SI.com’s boxing experts predict Saturday’s super welterweight title fight between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito. Share your prediction in the comments below.

    CHRIS MANNIX

    Cotto will (justifiably) be out for blood, but this won’t be a blowout. Though Margarito’s power isn’t what it was in 2008, when his possibly loaded gloves pummelled Cotto into submission, he still has advantages. Specifically, size. At 5-foot-7, Cotto was a small welterweight. At junior middleweight, he’s even smaller. If the 5-foot-11 Margarito is smart, he will use his size advantage as a weapon and work Cotto from the outside.

    That’s never been Margarito’s game, however, and his natural aggression and desire to prove that he can beat Cotto straight up will get the best of him. He’ll come right at Cotto, just like he did against Manny Pacquiao, and trade shots. And Cotto, who is two years younger and slightly less worn down, is better prepared for that. Keep in mind that referee Steve Smoger, despite his hands-off reputation, will undoubtedly be mindful of the damage to Cotto’s right eye. If it starts to swell, Smoger could step in and stop the fight. Cotto by 10th-round TKO.

    RICHARD O’BRIEN

    “These guys really don’t like each other” is a cliché that gets used a lot in sports, especially in boxing. Usually it ends up having little to do with how the match plays out. Professionals don’t conduct themselves like kids in a schoolyard. In this case, though, these guys really don’t … well, you know. And it could make a difference.

    However, it’s not Cotto, the guy who clearly has a reason to be fighting mad, whom I see letting emotion take him out of his game. For all his aggression throughout his career, he’s always been supremely focused and disciplined. Instead, I think that Margarito, so determined to play the bad guy and surely filled with some serious self-doubt in the wake of the losses to Mosley and Pacquiao, is likely to try too hard to hurt Cotto early and wind up taking himself out of his usual relentless, punishing game plan.

    Both these guys are near the ends of their careers, but Cotto has aged better and become a more complete fighter. He was outboxing Margarito brilliantly early in their first bout. I expect him to do so again, piling up points and maybe even rocking Margarito with that superb left hook. Margarito will be dangerous throughout, but if Cotto can keep up the volume punching and the movement and angles, I don’t see Margarito doing enough damage to mount another late charge. A bit of a bully, Margarito took real punishment from Mosley and Pacquiao, and I don’t see him too eager to go through that again — which is what he would need to do to pull off another rally. Cotto by a clear and redemptive decision.

    BRYAN ARMEN GRAHAM

    Since these two first met 40 months ago, Margarito is winless save for a ho-hum points victory over someone named Roberto Garcia in Aguascalientes, Mexico. He absorbed a stunning beating from a presumed-to-be-faded Shane Mosley and 12 rounds of punishment from Manny Pacquiao in a gruesome exhibition that many believe should have sent him into retirement. Meanwhile, Cotto responded from his own one-sided loss to Pacquiao by hooking up with trainer Emanuel Steward for two fights, winning a title in a third different weight class (at 154 pounds) and defending it with a 12th-round KO of Ricardo Mayorga. Both fighters aren’t what they were that night in the desert, but Cotto is fresher and sharper — even though lengthy volume punchers like Margarito will always be a bad matchup for him. Look for Cotto to box and move his way to an early lead, targeting Margarito’s surgically repaired right eye with that exquisite left hook, before the ring doctor does the right thing and puts a stop to it with what’s left of Margarito’s vision still intact. Cotto by eighth-round TKO.


  • Published On Dec 02, 2011
  • Cotto-Margarito II may be at MSG after all

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    NYSAC chairwoman Melvina Lathan (above) attended a Sept. 20 press conference announcing Cotto-Margarito II. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

    HOUSTON — The Dec. 3 show headlined by the rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito may end up at Madison Square Garden after all, this after the New York State Athletic Commission on Friday elected to table a vote on Margarito’s license and asked that Margarito submit to an exam by a doctor approved by the commission.

    And if you think that not knowing whether or not to license the headliner of a multi-million dollar promotion just over two weeks before the fight is a little bizarre, well, you’re right. A little context:

    After a three-hour meeting with the NYSAC on Wednesday, Bob Arum, who promotes both Cotto and Margarito, was prepared to take the Cotto-Margarito show out of New York. Despite flying in two top eye doctors who testified that Margarito — who had an artificial lens inserted in his right eye to correct a cataract problem that resulted from his brutal 2010 loss to Manny Pacquiao in November 2010 — was fit to fight, Arum knew he had lost. The commission appeared disinterested in his doctors and Arum left the room resigned to the fact they were going to vote against him.

    On Thursday, SI.com confirmed that was indeed the case. Arum was prepared to lock down Cowboys Stadium as an alternate venue and talked about possibly putting 40,000 people in a scaled-down building. Margarito had submitted all the proper paperwork for a license in Texas, and was expected to get it. They were moving on.

    Then all hell broke loose.

    Read More…


  • Published On Nov 18, 2011
  • N.Y. to deny Margarito license for Cotto fight

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    Antonio Margarito (above) suffered a fractured orbital bone during a one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium in November 2010. (AP)

    HOUSTON — The New York State Athletic Commission plans to reject Antonio Margarito’s license application, an industry source told SI.com. Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said the highly anticipated rematch between Margarito and junior middleweight titleholder Miguel Cotto on Dec. 3 will move to another state.

    The commission originally denied Margarito a license last month due to lingering issues with an eye injury Margarito suffered during a lopsided loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2010. Margarito developed a large cataract in his eye that his team initially feared to be career-threatening. However last spring Margarito had an artificial lens inserted in the eye, which he believed would allow him to continue his career.

    Arum and Top Rank president Todd  duBoef, accompanied by two doctors who supported Margarito’s ability to fight, met with the commission for three hours on Wednesday to appeal the original decision. According to the source, the commission was not convinced and plans to formally reject his application on Friday.

    “We didn’t get a very good feeling from them at all,” Arum said. “It’s outrageous. We brought in two specialists who told them he could fight and they brought in a couple of hacks.”

    Arum said venues in Texas, Denver and Mississippi are options to move the event and that he would have an announcement by the end of the day.

    – Chris Mannix


  • Published On Nov 17, 2011