WBA Super Welterweight Championship MIGUEL COTTO vs. ANTONIO MARGARITO II Saturday, December 3 at Madison Square Garden Presented Live By HBO Pay-Per-View®
NEW YORK (September 20, 2011) — This time it’s personal. Three-division world champion and the Pride of Puerto Rico MIGUEL COTTO will make the second defense of his World Boxing Association (WBA) super welterweight title in the long-awaited rematch against professional rival and three-time welterweight world champion ANTONIO “The Tijuana Tornado” MARGARITO, of México, Saturday, December 3, at The Mecca of Boxing, Madison Square Garden. Cotto-Margarito II will be produced and distributed Live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.
Their first encounter, on July 26, 2008, was a battle of epic proportion and arguably the Fight of the Year. Cotto and Margarito boast a combined record of 74-9 (56 KOs) – a winning percentage of 89% and a victory by knockout ratio of 76% — not to mention seven world titles between them.
Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Cotto Promotions, Tornado Promotions, AT&T, Tecate and Madison Square Garden, tickets to Cotto-Margarito II, priced at $600, $400, $300, $200, $100 and $50, including applicable service charges, will go on sale Today! Tuesday, September 20, at Noon ET. They can be purchased at the Madison Square Garden box office, online at www.thegarden.com and all Ticketmaster outlets. Ticketmaster charges an additional fee.”The first fight was a classic. I have a feeling that this fight will be much more intense, an outright war. This event will be a real treat for all fight fans,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank.
“I am so excited about my December 3rd fight at Madison Square Garden,” said Cotto. “This next time around the story will be entirely different. I am more mature and will have the correct strategy to convincingly defeat my opponent. I am ready for a great victory!”
The first fight was a great one and I am sure that the second fight will be too,” said Margarito. “And just the like the first fight I will come out victorious”
“All the elements you look for in a heated rivalry are part of this matchup,” said Mark Taffet of HBO Pay-Per-View. “Two established ring warriors with loyal fan bases who want to settle the score, meeting on one of boxing’s most electric stages — Madison Square Garden.”
“All boxing fans should circle December 3rd on their calendar now for the much anticipated rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito at The World’s Most Famous Arena,” said Scott O’Neil, president, MSG Sports. “We are excited to welcome back Cotto to his home away from home, this is the perfect fight to debut the first phase of the transformed Garden to boxing fans.”
Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs), from Caguas, Puerto Rico, has sold more fight tickets at The Garden than any other fighter in this millennium. He has held a world title every year since 2004 while winning 16 of the 18 world championship bouts he has fought. Puerto Rico’s most exciting fighter and one of its greatest, Cotto held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior welterweight crown from 2004-2006, successfully defending it six times before vacating it to capture the WBA welterweight title at the end of 2006, a title he held for nearly as long. After losing the WBA title to Margarito in July 2008, Cotto won his second welterweight belt in February 2009, knocking out Michael Jennings in the fifth round to become the WBO welterweight champion. He lost the title in his second defense, November 2009, to Manny Pacquiao. Cotto captured the WBA super welterweight title June 2010 at Yankee Stadium, by stopping undefeated defending champion Yuri Foreman. In his last fight, in March, Cotto successfully defended that title by stopping two- division world champion Ricardo Mayorga in the 12th round. Notable scalps on Cotto’s belt include world champions “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Joshua Clottey, Paulie Malignaggi and Demarcus Corley.
Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs), a native of Tijuana, México, captured his first world title in 2002, winning the vacant WBO welterweight title with a tenth-round TKO of Antonio Diaz. He reigned as WBO champion for five years, successfully defending his title seven times – five by knockout – among them victories over world champions Kermit Cintron, Andrew Lewis and Joshua Clottey. After losing the title to Paul Williams in 2007, Margarito dethroned IBF welterweight champion Cintron in a rematch, knocking him out in their 2008 fight. Margarito claimed his third welterweight title when he stopped undefeated WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in the eleventh round of their July 2008 battle. The rematch with Cotto will be Margarito’s third attempt at a world super welterweight title.
The Cotto-Margarito II world championship telecast, which begins at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry.
For Cotto-Margarito II fight week updates, log on to www.toprank.com and www.hbo.com
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
