Cotto, Margarito stop foes in AC, clear way for showdown By Thomas Gerbasi (April 13, 2008) Photo © German Villasenor Send this page to friend Give us your feedback Alfonso Gomez’ challenge of WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto was expected to be negatively one-sided, and it was, but with Cotto’s fifth round stoppage of the former ‘Contender’ star Saturday night, now the Puerto Rican star can possibly get in the ring with the other big winner at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, new IBF 147-pound champion Antonio Margarito. “I tried to do everything in the fight – move, punch, put pressure, and I think everything ran pretty good,” said Cotto of his win over Gomez. “I think my jab has been the difference in the last three fights.” Cotto tried to test Gomez’ chin immediately, and though the Mexico native took everything well, it wasn’t something he’d want to get used to on a regular basis, and his face reddened under the assault almost immediately. By round two, it was obvious that Cotto wasn’t looking for a long night, and nothing that Gomez was throwing at him was deterring him from that mission. With under a minute to go, a glancing right to the body put Gomez on the canvas, with the fighter protesting that it was a slip, but to no avail. The pattern continued in the third, with Cotto landing whenever and wherever he wanted, with a huge left hook to the body dropping Gomez a second time. This time there was no doubt, and the intervening bell may have been a curse, not a blessing for the courageous Gomez, who now had to come out for another round of punishment. And despite Gomez’ limitations, there are no questions regarding his heart, and he again met Cotto in center ring for round four and tried his best to turn the tide. Cotto, disdainful of Gomez’ power, kept up his merciless attack. The one-sided fourth round brought the ringside physician to Gomez’ corner between rounds, and with a little over a minute left in the fifth, a jab put Gomez on the seat of his pants for the third time in the fight. Again Gomez rose, but he was allowed to continue and made it through the round. The doctor had seen enough though, and with the game Gomez’ face misshapen, the bout was halted before the sixth round began. With the win, Cotto improves to 32-0 with 26 KOs; Gomez falls to 18-4-2 with 8 KOs. It took him one more round than it did three years ago, but the end result was the same in the HBO co-feature, as Antonio Margarito knocked out Kermit Cintron in six rounds to win the IBF welterweight title. “We know he’s a great puncher, a great fighter, but we knew that after the second round he slowed down a bit,” said Margarito, who improves to 36-5 with 26 KOs; Cintron, who was TKOed in five rounds by the ‘Tijuana Tornado’ in April of 2005, falls to 29-2 with 27 KOs. Cintron, visibly animated as he came into the ring with a roar, began the fight as the busier of the two while Margarito patiently stalked. By the second minute the heavier shots started flying, with Cintron landing a couple of right hands while Margarito pounded away to the body with hooks and to the head with his jab. With under 45 seconds to go, Cintron tagged his foe with two successive rights, drawing a roar from the Cintron partisans, but it was Margarito who landed the final big shot of the round, a right of his own to the head. Sharpshooting again, Cintron landed well early in round two, but Margarito fired back with controlled fury that seemed to be increasingly bothering the IBF titlist. Particularly, it was the body attack of the Mexican battler seemed to be paying dividends as the round progressed. Coming out of his corner with a small cut over his left eye, Margarito kept moving forward to begin the third, and while he was eating quick combinations from Cintron on the way in, once Margarito got inside, he was the visibly stronger of the two, and his body attack was breaking down Cintron, who was more concerned with complaining to the referee about shots behind the head than with fighting back. Trainer Emanuel Steward didn’t raise his voice between rounds, keeping Cintron cool and in the fight, and as the fourth opened, the Puerto Rican fighter was able to land with some solid right hands that didn’t deter Margarito, but they did score points. Margarito’s gameplan remained unchanged – pressure, pressure, pressure. Cintron was sharp early in the fifth as he scored repeatedly with his right hand, but Margarito walked through each of them and cut his foe over the right eye, again seeming to take the champion’s mind off the task at hand, and it looked like it was just a matter of time until Margarito would lower the final boom. Told by Steward to box, Cintron tried to stay on the outside and follow instructions in the sixth, but as expected, Margarito kept marching forward, and after a vicious left hook to the body with under 1:30 to go in the round, Cintron collapsed to the mat and stayed there for referee Earl Brown’s ten count, ending the bout at 1:57 of the round . Now available, Thomas Gerbasi’s latest boxing compilation: Fightin’ to Writin’ – More Ring Ramblings. For more information, click here http://www.amazon.com/Fightin-Writin-More-Ring-Ramblings/dp/0595486665/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF 8&s=books&qid=1202272469&sr=8-12 Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com or visit www.myspace.com/gerbasi