Cotto avenges loss in fair fight

NEW YORK - There are two primary ways an athlete can cheat. He can artificially enhance his body with steroids or human growth hormone, or he can tamper with his equipment to gain a competitive edge. Both methods can be tremendously successful, if the transgressor finds a way to get away with the illegal maneuvers.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the awesome punching power for which Antonio Margarito once was known received a considerable boost from the boxing equivalent of a corked bat. Since he was caught with doctored hand wraps before his matchup with Shane Mosley on Jan. 24, 2009 - a fight he would go on to lose by unanimous decision once the suspect wraps were replaced with those that met all legal specifications, "The Tijiuana Tornado" has been downgraded to a mild breeze. He has lost three of his last four bouts, all on major beatdowns.

Revenge-minded Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs) retained his WBA junior middleweight championship in convincing fashion Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, scoring a technical knockout when ring physician Anthony Curreri would not allow Margarito (38-8, 27 KOs) to come out for the 10th round, his right eye swollen shut and the rest of his face looking no less battered.

At the time of the stoppage, Cotto led, 89-82, on all three judges' scorecards and was giving a sellout crowd of 21,239 a clinic in how to take advantage of a situation without resorting to rules-breaking. The Puerto Rican star, making ninth appearance before another partisan and appreciative audience in New York, had vowed beforehand to target Margarito's thrice-operated-upon right eye. He made good on that promise, connecting with 86 of his 210 punches landed to the preferred location, according to CompuBox statististics, many on sharp, stinging left hooks.

"I had a job to do, I did it and I did it very well," Cotto said of settling an old score with Margarito, who stopped him in 11 rounds in July 2008, turning the tide with power shots in the middle rounds after Cotto had built a sizable early lead.

It wasn't until "Wrapgate" that Cotto became convinced that the pounding he had taken 3 1/2 years ago owed in large part to Margarito's heavier shots being made more so by fists hardened by ingredients found in plaster of Paris. He derided Margarito as a "criminal," and Margarito responded by saying it didn't matter who wrapped his hands, he would smack Cotto around the same way he had before.

If Saturday's bout thus was a referendum on whose version is to be believed of what actually transpired in the first fight, Cotto presented a pretty strong case that Margarito, without loaded wraps, is Samson after a haircut.

"He's still a very strong fighter, but I'm way better than he is," Cotto said. Asked if he detected a reduction in Margarito's power, Cotto said, "I'm still awake, that's my answer."

For his part, Margarito remained defiant to the very end. He said Cotto "punches like a girl" and that he was "protected" by Curreri because the doctor and referee Steve Smoger were getting nervous that the challenger was beginning to gather momentum.

"I never felt his punches," insisted Margarito, who required 12 stitches to close the gash above his swollen-shut eye. "I thought I threw the harder punches."

If Margarito, who might have become the Hathaway shirt man had the one-sided fight been allowed to continue, is that delusional, he apparently needs a psychologist more than an ophthalmologist.

"He had no vision in the right eye, meaning he had no peripheral vision," Curreri said of Margarito's busted headlight. "The fight did go on quite a bit with the eye impaired."

Give credit to Margarito for absorbing punishment like a sponge. He might have sought and gained a competitive advantage in the past, but he's no quitter. He took an even worse whipping from Manny Pacquiao than he did from Cotto, but he kept moving forward, continually throwing punches that lacked the snap they once packed, and he finished that one on his feet. He desperately wanted the opportunity to go the distance against Cotto, too.

But not being a quitter should not absolve someone from corking his bat or plastering his handwraps.