ANTONIO MARGARITO KO11 MIGUEL COTTO

Being the superior boxer is a fine thing, and Miguel Cotto was the more artistic of the two fighters in the ring on Saturday night in Las Vegas, and he might even have been the harder puncher, but Antonio Margarito had the durability, size, strength and iron will that can make skill irrelevant.

Pressing forward inexorably, seemingly impervious to punishment, Mexico’s Margarito put pressure on Puerto Rico’s Cotto the like of which has not been seen in a boxing ring in a long time. It was incredible, unyielding, almost superhuman pressure, and it proved far too much for Cotto, who despite sporadic rallies was in truth a beaten man long before he was beaten down, bloodied and exhausted, in the 11th round.

Cotto did well early and he was winning the boxing match, but Margarito was winning the fight .

Previously, in every fight in his unbeaten career, Cotto had risen to the challenge and found a way to win. This time he couldn’t do it.

The punches that had hurt, dropped and stopped other fighters had no effect on Margarito: he walked through everything. Sometimes Cotto was hitting him flush and snapping his head back, and still Margarito came on.

I had expected Cotto to go to the body to try to slow Margarito down, yet he didn’t. His whole fight plan was based on being quicker, savvier, sharper, hitting and moving. After all, this was how Cotto’s buddy Ivan Calderon had beaten the bigger Hugo Cazares. Unfortunately for Cotto, he was meeting a fighter who wasn’t just bigger but who was almost frighteningly relentless. A couple of people at the MGM Grand ringside suggested that Margarito almost didn’t seem human. Veteran boxing writer Michael Katz took it a stage further, commenting afterwards: “The guy was like a zombie from Night of the Living Dead — nothing was going to stop him.”

Cotto, I think, sensed this, too, this unstoppability of his opponent. As the fight entered its second half, Margarito must have seemed, to Cotto, to be taking on the aspect of a vision from hell.

True, after five rounds Cotto seemed to be in charge of the fight but he hadn’t made an impression on Margarito. For all of Cotto’s slick moves and his crisp, clean hitting, there was Margarito right in front of him and coming on, and on, and on, willing to take punches to land his own.

Some people will say that it is not possible for a fighter to get stronger as a bout goes into the later rounds, that in reality it is the other man growing weaker, but I swear that Margarito gathers momentum so that his physical prowess really does increase with the passing of each round. It certainly must have seemed like this to Cotto.

It was a great fight to be sure, and on the scorecards it was close after 10 rounds, with Margarito up 96-94 on two cards and even, 95-95, on the third, but I thought that the fight turned dramatically late in the sixth when a series of left uppercuts hurt Cotto as he was backed up on the ropes. One judge gave Cotto the round, but I sensed the beginning of the end.

Cotto was still scoring well in the subsequent rounds but the tide was flowing Margarito’s way, and with blood coming from Cotto’s nose and mouth he looked a weary, forlorn figure as the doctor checked on him between rounds from the seventh onwards. With Cotto cut over the left eye in the 11th it was clear that he would not be making it to the final bell, and it was a relief when the fight was stopped after he had taken a knee for the second time in the round. He was brave and he fought well, but Margarito turned out to be his worst nightmare.

Why didn’t Cotto go to the body, you might ask? After all, body punching is supposed to be one of his strong points. I thought that, as he was able to hit Margarito with clean, hard punches upstairs he simply decided to concentrate on going to the head, perhaps in the hope of inflicting damage — “busting up” his opponent as they say in the business. Veteran fight reporter Jack Obermayer, who flew in from New Jersey, thought that Cotto didn’t fire to the body because it would have meant planting his feet and risking a toe-toe-toe fight. I would have liked to have seen Cotto try some body shots , but the moving, boxing style had worked well for him for almost six full rounds and the die was cast, as it were.

Once Margarito started to hammer and hurt him from the seventh round onwards, it was too late, I believe, for Cotto to change what he was doing because so much had been taken out of him, physically and mentally. Now, instead of thinking on the lines of trying to hurt Margarito, he had to try to box his way home, perhaps in the hope that his opponent might get a little bit tired — sadly for Cotto, there was no chance of that.

The fight was certainly memorable, and one of the great Mexico versus Puerto Rican showdowns. It reminded me a little of Julio Cesar Chavez grinding down and overpowering Edwin Rosario, which was also an 11th-round finish: Margarito-Cotto was a much closer fight in terms of the scorecards but, after six rounds, it had the same air of finality about it.

Margarito’s eyes were somewhat swollen (he wore dark glasses to the post-fight press conference) but he never at any stage looked more than slightly shaken — and Cotto hit him with some excellent, precise punches. This was a night when Margarito was not going to allow himself to lose. Now we know — if we didn’t before — why Floyd Mayweather Jr. wanted no part of this implacable aggressor.