Boxing regains its title with memorable match

This is what will bring boxing fans back, what will raise the interest of those who have adopted mixed martial arts as their favorite sport of blood and anguish.

This kind of memorable, thrilling, relentless action.

This is what will bring them back: a welterweight champion with the heart and toughness and perseverance of Antonio Margarito. He waited 15 years for this moment and ultimately took out every ounce of frustration he felt on one of the world’s best.

Margarito is the WBA champion in boxing’s deepest division today because he gave Miguel Cotto the kind of beating no one could have forecast.

When it reached the point of 2:05 of the 11th round Saturday night and Cotto’s corner could no longer stomach watching the red stain cover more of their man’s face, it stopped the fight and officially gave notice:

No wonder top welterweights for more than a decade ducked an opportunity to fight Margarito. No wonder Floyd Mayweather Jr. turned down $8 million for such a bout. Oscar De La Hoya still hasn’t set an opponent for his Dec. 6 finale here, but you figure all his business smarts will also translate to that decision.

De La Hoya should continue to want no part of Margarito, and not because he wouldn’t want his last fight to be against a fellow Mexican. Because he would lose. He should also take a pass on Cotto and instead hope Manny Pacquiao really would fatten up enough to take the fight. That might be his best chance.

Fighting either Margarito or Cotto wouldn’t.

That’s how exhilarating and impressive Saturday was at the MGM Grand Garden. The only thing Margarito and Cotto should be planning is a rematch. Yes, the brawl added another chapter to the storied history of Mexican fighters against Puerto Rican fighters, a fact supported by the passionate throngs of fans from both nations throughout the arena. But these two could have been from Iowa and nothing in the ring would have changed the outstanding effort.

If pay-per view numbers don’t reach HBO’s prefight desire of more than 400,000 buys, a second encounter would certainly bring a smile to its executives.

“I am very proud I was able to give the fans a great fight,” Cotto said. “Life continues. It’s not over for me. This night was Margarito’s. He is an excellent fighter. He did his job better than I did.”

The guy is an unrelenting puncher who knows only one direction: forward. Margarito promised to be the aggressor from the opening bell, and you got the feeling he had been thinking of that sound for years.

He threw nearly 1,000 punches. He took 280. One scorecard had the fight even when Cotto’s people called it off, and two more had Margarito ahead 6-4 in rounds. But no matter how many times sweat sprayed from his head as a Cotto uppercut or jab landed, Margarito plunged ahead. Nothing was going to deny him the win, the belt, the moment.

“I told my corner I could wear him down and then knock him out,” Margarito said. “He never hurt me, but that was the game plan. Cotto is obviously a very strong fighter. By the sixth round, I knew I was getting stronger and could feel him getting weaker. I knew it was my time.”

Somewhere in Tijuana, Mexico, a father who has never seen his son fight live professionally smiled and probably shed tears of pride. Antonio Margarito Sr. doesn’t have a passport, but he was watching. So, too, the son believes, was Manuel, the brother who was murdered in 1999 on the night before Antonio Jr. fought Buck Smith.

Maybe it was the thoughts of those two that had Margarito smiling here all week. At news conferences, at the weigh-in, even after taking a jab from Cotto early in the fight.

Maybe when you wait for something so long and, time and again, have others find excuses not to engage your skill, then anger and bitterness turns to joy when your shot finally comes.

Cotto is now 32-1 and still terrific, still a fighter Mayweather should think hard about avoiding if and when he decides to un-retire and begins considering foes. But today is about a tall, lanky, ultra-destructive fighter. This is what will bring fans back. Fights like this. Champions like Margarito.

“We knew Cotto was a better boxer, but Antonio a better puncher,” said Sergio Diaz, Margarito’s manager. “The goal was to break him down, and we did. … We didn’t even have a good training camp, and look what he did.”

Look indeed. What a fight.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.