If there was anything we can surmise from Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito’s wins on April 12 it is that their opponents had no business being in the same ring. It also means we’re going to get one hell of a fight come July 26th between these two titans of the welterweight division.
Cotto controlled every step of his five round bludgeoning of Alfonso Gomez, mixing uppercuts and body shots with ease. The score sheet for this contest in some instances was 10-9 or 10-8, but honestly the bout was never that close.
I guess anyone could have figured out this wouldn’t be a fair fight when Cotto is a mind-boggling $12.00 “chalk” (risk $1,200 to win $100).
The 32-0 brawler came out of the gates swinging, taking just seconds to start the swelling of Gomez’s face by landing several direct shots in the opening round. Cotto then went to work on his body, knocking down the Season 1 winner of “The Contender” with a hard shot to the right side of his body in the second round.
By the time the bell rung to start the fifth, Gomez was lucky to be standing on his own. Cotto wasn’t going to let that last for long, leveling his opponent with a small jab. The remainder of the round was just a dance, with Cotto not wanting to levy any more punishment than he already had delivered.
In the earlier fight of the evening, Margarito proved that his 2005 win over Kermit Citron was no fluke. Citron was never in that ’05 tilt and this one was no different outside of the fact that it lasted longer.
The Mexican entered the battle as a $3.50 favorite, which was a much safer bet than what we were going to get from the other big fight.
This contest was a battle of the inside and Margarito won it convincingly. He came out from the opening bell waging war on Citron’s lower body, a lesson that he finally learned after taking of the first few rounds of bouts in the past.
The end result of Margarito’s dominance of Citron is the WBO welterweight title…a honor he once defended thoroughly against this opponent three years ago.
Both champions want to take a swing at Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he seems more inclined to take on wrestling and mixed martial arts bouts right now. That means these two maulers will battle it out for the chance to be the next in line for a shot at Mayweather…if ever.
Something we know right off the bat is we’re going to see a fight between welterweights that know how to land punches. Cotto took 369 total shots at Gomez last Saturday, connecting on 188 of them. Margarito flailed wildly by his total of 611 punches thrown, while landing 257 of the shots.
Boxing’s deepest division will produce the top contender to Mayweather’s thrown in late July in either Boardwalk Hall at Atlantic City or Madison Square Garden in New York City.
You can reach Judd Hall via e-mail at judd@vegasinsider.com
