Cotto needs to learn to tie up and rest on the inside or else he will always get tired from hopping around like a rabbit for 12 rounds.
Unless Margarito is irreparably damaged from the Pac fight, he is going to press like he did last time with Cotto. Cotto can certainly work on improving both his pacing and stamina, which he should do, but he wanes in the last 4-5 rounds in almost every fight. To me the key is hurting Margarito. He can start like he did last fight, he tagged Marg over and over as Marg came to him, but this time I would focus on sitting down on the punches and ESPECIALLY ripping the left to the body that Cotto used to use all the time. All Cotto has to do is discourage Marg enough to slow his forward progress, and Cotto easily outboxes him. Easily. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, loaded gloves or not, the last fight showed Cotto unable to do enough to Marg to stop his progress. If Cotto spends the whole fight backing up again and throwing punches on the way out or off the ropes, he probably loses. Cotto is far faster than Margarito in terms of handspeed, and can easily get inside, rip some body punches, get out. But if he is not committing to his punches, I fear he will just be followed around the ring until he tires and then get popped in the later rounds. Once Margarito is damaged in a fight, he covers up and slows down. But if you can't hurt the guy, he becomes more confident and presses harder. Again, how much of this was due to "special" gloves, I don't know. But I think a plan of sheerly "outboxing" Marg is not a good one for Cotto, as he will fade late, and then he ends up running around dead tired, an easy target. I'd really like to see Cotto start fast and use his speed and footwork to pound Marg with some powerful shots early on. But somehow I have this feeling he is going to try to outbox Marg again, and I am 50/50 on whether or not he can go 12 rounds doing that without tiring and falling apart. Generally speaking, early on in his career Cotto was able to come out ahead in tough fights when his power changed things. Especially those body shots and the left hook. When you have a fight where Cotto can't (or won't) do any damage with his harder punches, you get fights like Clottey and Margarito. Bad news for Cotto.
It was precisely because of the loaded gloves that Cotto would not commit to his punches. He paid too great a price to do so. This is what a lot of people don't seem to understand about the loaded gloves. Cotto will find it much less painful than last time to stay in there with Margarito long enough to do damage. And this will be the difference. The loaded gloves provided three distinct advantages to Margarito: 1. His punches hurt more 2. His opponents were utterly unwilling to trade with him because of #1 3. He expelled much less energy throwing punches because the plaster did much of the work It's possible Margarito's done himself a great disservice by trying to cheat against Mosley, and that in fact he's had legitimately impressive past performances. And so predicting this fight is not straight forward at all. If you think his gloves were loaded against Cotto, Cintron and Williams, but not against Mosley, then it's hard to imagine Cotto not winning the rematch. On the other hand, even if you believe his gloves were loaded against Cotto, if you think he was clean against Williams, then there's still reason to be impressed with Margarito. And so my prediction amounts to no more than an educated guess, which is that Margarito loses in a surprisingly one-sided fight. The wild-card
EXCELLENT POST! I agree the KEY here is Cotto must hurt Margarito. The left hook to the body is his life line. If Miguel backpedals he will get stopped again.
he needs to stick and move like he did earlier in the first fight and hope that margarito is shot to a point where he can't catch up. both fighters are slower and more vulnerable, so i see this as a toss up fight. who knows what margarito has left since the drubbing he took from pacquiao.
Hopefully nothing. I don't even care to see a competitive fight, i'd prefer if Cotto just puts a beating on that classless scumbag.
It would be nice to see something chronic happen to Margarito...like he can't function after the fight and needs a colostomy bag or something....so he doesn't, ahem, load his pants.
He hasnt maximized his stamina is anyone. Cotto drinks like a fucking horse. He doesnt take care of himself properly outside of a training time. And his roadwork is laughable. He hangs out with Chubby boy all day long. If he took his endurance training seriously, you could see a huge improvement in his stamina. Or as you say his Stamina maximized.
This. He needs to sit down on his punches more & Tie Marg up. Cotto was good at getting in a couple of quick shots then moving away. Trouble is, he's not gonna hurt/ discourage Marg that way, he's just gonna gas, & end up taking shots. And Cotto isnot tough enough to take a lot of shots. SSM did it brilliantly. Get of first. Make your shots count & tie him up so he doesn't get to return fire. Personally, unless Marg has lost a step or to due to the SSM/ Pacman beatings (which is very possible), I suspect more of the same.
Cotto's biggest weakness is Margarito's biggest strength IMO. This fight is winnable for Miguel but he's gotta really want it. Stewart better have him ready because I can guarantee Margarito will press from round 1.
you could say this about roughly half of all big-time boxers the point stands: he can only reach his MAX, nothing more
If he doesnt use his stamina properly, it would effect him. So him using his stamina in a way that helps him last longer would be improved stamina. are we seriously discussing this?
I think Cotto will beat the shit out of Margarito. Margarito will retire after this bout. He'll break him down and stop him around the tenth.
agREED... If Cotto has 1 LAST "Great" Performance Left In Him (Which he Should), it'll B for THIS Fight...REED is a Believer in KARMA & it's Gonna Bite Margarita in his Ass, in this RE.... REED:hammert:
Cotto deserves a lot of credit for how consistent he's been. He always shows up to fight, and is always at his best. His resume isn't sparkling with wins over hall of famers, but had some good and dominant wins: Mosley Foreman Clottey Urkal Judah Malignaggi Quintana (before he was shot) Torres Abdullaev Gomez Ndou Pinto Bailey Maussa (directly following his dismantling of Resto) Bazan I would've liked to see him face Hatton, PBF and Williams. But the guy has stayed busy, and faced almost all of his fellow prospects (Pinto, Abdullaev, Malignaggi, Quintana), and beat some top ranked fighters (Judah, Mosley, Clottey) , and some tough veterans (Urkal, Bailey, Bazan).
definitely, I haven't said any different but how many of the above could possibly be described as "GREAT" performances?
I don't know about great but he did a real number on Quintana in a fight most felt would be a lot more competitive.
I think he lacked a bit of ruggedness and speed alright. That said I hope he makes some optometrists very rich when he fights Margacheato.
I goota bad feeling for Cotto in this fight. His stamina problems will never go away and he is always liable to being broken down by a pressure fighter like the cheating bastard. I really hope I'm wrong, though. MTF