Golden Gloves

Miguel Cotto will be out for revenge against Antonio Margarito

Saturday’s big fight between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will go ahead after Margarito was handed a licence this week to box in New York.

The bout, for Cotto’s WBA light-middleweight title, will be broadcast live on SuperSport 2 and SSHD2 from 4am on Sunday morning.

An injury to Margarito’s eye had earlier placed the fight in doubt. The Mexican was forced to have an operation on his damaged right eye following his last fight with Manny Pacquiao and could not obtain a licence until he was passed fit to fight.

Revenge will be in the air for Cotto, who in 2008 lost a brutal encounter to Margarito. In a subsequent bout with Shane Mosley, Margarito was found to have loaded gloves and banned from the sport for 16 months.

Inevitably, there are some who believe a similar issue was at play when he fought Cotto previously.

“I’ve carried my loss like a man for the last three years,” said Cotto. “I didn’t ask for the people to erase the defeat. That’s not the issue. He has to accept what he used and what he did in 2008.”
The only other blemish on Cotto’s record is a 2009 points loss to Manny Pacquiao.
Margarito is a former WBA, WBO and IBF welterweight champion whose best win remains his defeat of then unbeaten Cotto.
There’s a cracking undercard that includes Mike Jones, Pawel Wolak and Brandon Rios.

The WBA heavyweight championship bout between Aleksandr Povetkin and Cedric Boswell will be broadcast on SuperSport 5 on Saturday (11.30pm).