Miguel Cotto – Antonio Margarito

After being pointed to this fight by many people, I got to watching the video of it. What a fight, instant classic imo. Margarito ended Cotto’s perfect record with an eleventh round stoppage after continual pressure throughout the fight.

In a bout that was difficult to score in places, Cotto took an early lead by being able to evade Margarito better and land the cleaner and heavier shots, however from about the sixth Margarito’s constant workrate began to show as his success rate with power punches increased, landing more often and taking rounds back. With the scorecard more or less even in the 8th (the HBO guy had it 76-76 at that point, I had it 77-76 to Margarito, scoring the fourth 10-10 but otherwise calling it the same), Cotto began to catch somewhat of a second wind, becoming more elusive and being able to hit the better shots. I gave the ninth to Margarito though, and scored the tenth even, going to Cotto until Margarito rocked him badly late. The eleventh saw the end with a couple of knockdowns which seemed inevitable at that stage, the corner sensibly throwing in the towel.

Early FOTY contender for my money, a swingy fight with constant action, even scorecards and a great finish.