Never let it be said that Miguel Cotto is a smack-talking, excuse-making, "oh this and that and that and this happened and then I lost" kind of a fighter.

After his first pro loss, all he really had to say was this:

"This was Margarito's night. He's an excellent fighter. He did his job better than I did. ... I am very proud and very happy I was able to give the fans a great fight."

There remains nothing I don't like about Miguel Cotto. Antonio Margarito beat him down and forced him into submission, no easy task. And Cotto is a man about it and says he'll move on.

Also notable in that Tim Smith article is that Arum says he's looking to match Margarito with the Clottey-Judah winner next. Margarito already beat Clottey, as you probably remember, in December 2006, on the same card where Cotto demolished Carlos Quintana. I think the Bobfather's hoping for a Judah win, because he says it's time for Margarito to "chase cash," and there's no money in Joshua Clottey.

Where Cotto goes next is a mystery. If Shane Mosley can't find himself a good dance partner post-Mayorga (assuming, as we all do, that he wins), a Cotto-Mosley rematch might work.

1. Miguel Cotto lost

I hate to overshadow the fact that Antonio Margarito won, but I'd be lying if I said my first, most basic instinct as a fan wasn't the shock that Miguel Cotto lost his first professional fight.

We've seen Cotto in trouble before, against Ricardo Torres and Chop-Chop Corley, but he always rallied. When faced with guys that wouldn't back down, Cotto always came out on top (Mosley, Malignaggi). But Margarito proved to be too much--nothing more, nothing less.

Cotto lost! No longer is Miguel unbeaten. If he can deal with it mentally, he'll be fine. Listen, fighters that fight other real fighters lose fights. What a sentence that was. But it's the truth. Ali lost, Oscar de la Hoya lost, Mosley has lost (obviously), Margarito has lost five fights, Louis lost, Robinson lost, Hagler lost, Hearns lost, Leonard lost, Duran lost, and on and on and on. They all lose fights.

Cotto's performance was really outstanding in many ways, though he showed some real flaws. In becoming more well-rounded, he seems to have lost some of what made him the absolute most destructive body puncher in the sport. He headhunted a lot on Margarito. In the end, that doomed him. Margarito worked the body and chipped away at Cotto. Simple, effective.

2. Antonio Margarito won

How do you rate Margarito's performance? He landed 27% of his punches, compared to Cotto's 43%. Cotto landed on 45% of power punches (179/395). Cotto landed 13 more punches overall (280-267). And Margarito walked through ALL of them. He took ripping shots from Cotto and just moved forward.

Margarito has some of that Kelly Pavlik thing, where he honestly doesn't look like he's hitting all that hard, but he very much is. But it's his epic chin that carried him through the fight. He said, "OK, guy, you can hit me, but I'm never stopping." Just amazing stuff. He was like the Terminator in there.

3. What's next?

You know what? Seriously, how about a rematch? I'm more interested in Margarito-Cotto II than I am in Margarito-Williams II, and I'm more interested in that rematch than I am watching Margarito wail on Oscar de la Hoya. Antonio against Oscar just sounds like a slaughter to me. I doubt I'm alone.

4. PPV undercards HAVE TO get better

The energy in the arena was non-existent throughout the three-fight televised undercard, which featured a fantastic brawl between Giovanni Segura and Cesar Canchila, and also two predictable mismatches that saw Mike Alvarado and Bernabe Concepcion score knockouts.

For those of us that care about the undercards and actually watch the fights, it was excruciating. For one thing, Segura and Canchila deserved a better reception for their fight. But what were they supposed to be excited about? Sure, Alvarado and Cesar Bazan tore into each other, but it wasn't exactly thrilling. The Concepcion fight finished well (and quickly), but nobody knows who in the hell Adam Carrera is, and most people are still not familiar with Concepcion.

We are paying money and getting fights that are, at best, Wednesday Night Fights main events. That has to change. Even for diehards, these fights are hard to get excited about when you're waiting on something like Cotto-Margarito.

There is nothing to lose by spending more money on a card to make more money off of it. You load up a card, and more people buy, because there are more interesting fights to pay for. I get the logistics and the risks, but isn't it worth trying? Segura-Canchila was superb; it also should've been an opener.

5. The Mike Tyson fawning has grown beyond tired

I guess I understand why they show Tyson in the crowd, and last night he was there with two of his sons. Jim Lampley said, "A great American tradition. A father and his sons at a boxing match." Like he was looking at something less than a man who has led a rather deplorable life.

We celebrate Mike Tyson. Why? Boxing should try to distance itself from Tyson and his image. It's not that I have no empathy for the man and his struggles, but continually pointing out Tyson does two things: (1) reminds people of what they think is missing from the sport, and (2) reminds people of something a lot of them hate about the sport.

6. Fight of the Year?

I wouldn't argue with anyone that had Cotto-Margarito as their Fight of the Year right now, but I'd respectfully disagree. They didn't manage to top Vazquez-Marquez III; that's OK, because not many fights have.

What do you have? I really think Segura-Canchila is up there, too. These two fights and the Lacy-Mendoza thriller made for quite a week of great fights.

7. Alvarado wants a top ten opponent

Mike Alvarado came out of his KO win over veteran Cesar Bazan and said he feels he's top 10 in the 140-pound division, and that he wants to face another contender or a titleholder.

Well, good luck. Alvarado got his start in boxing late, picking up the fight game at age 18 after a high school wrestling career, and it still shows. He's got power and possesses some raw skills, but they are still very, very raw. He'd be eaten alive by anyone in the top ten at 140. I wouldn't even pick him over a guy like Lovemore N'dou.

8. Who's No. 1 at 147?

It's not boxing's best division anymore (135), but now there's a real jumble at the top. The top four, undoubtedly, are Margarito, Cotto, Williams and Mosley.

Margarito beat Cotto. Williams beat Margarito. Cotto beat Mosley. Mosley has beaten none of them, but on the right night, I still think he puts any of them to the test and then some. To me, Mosley has to be a clear fourth, based on his age more than anything. So who's No. 1? If you break it down simply and throw no bias in, it's Paul Williams, isn't it? "The Punisher" beat Margarito and violently avenged his only loss to Carlos Quintana. But I'd throw bias in and say it's Margarito right now. I think the "Tornado" beats Williams if they fight again, though the fact is Williams is 1-for-1 against Margarito.

It's a fearsome foursome, to be sure.

9. Never count your chickens

I'll also admit that I felt a lot like Kieran Mulvaney did last night. In the first half of the fight, with Cotto's skill and ring awareness shining, plus his ability to beat Margarito to the punch, I thought, "This is a good fight, but we're on our way to a runaway decision."

Like Mulvaney, I was thinking ahead, but at one moment, I stopped myself. I wanted to say, during the fight, "You know what? Mayweather can't beat Cotto." Cotto looked untouchable at points early on, and it felt like Margarito just had no chance.

But something stopped me from saying it. I thought, "This could turn around any time." Moments later, it started to. I didn't expect it to, but it happened.

10. Conditioning, conditioning, conditioning

Is anyone as well-conditioned as Margarito? His stamina is off the charts. He seems absolutely tireless in there, able to punch and punch and punch (he launched 130 shots in the seventh round alone) without quitting. He didn't take a single round off. He felt Cotto out in the first round, and then he started to cook.

Bob Arum described Margarito as a freight train that just kept rolling downhill until he inevitably ran Cotto over. It's the perfect way to put it.

For years, Antonio Margarito was hyped as the most avoided fighter in the game, the most feared man out there. He ran into Paul Williams, made some mistakes, and lost the fight. But it's now very easy to see (again) just why he was hyped how he was. Congratulations, Antonio. Welcome to the elite.

via d.yimg.com

The "0" had to go. Under the unrelenting pressure of Antonio Margarito, a seemingly in-control Miguel Cotto crumbled in the 11th round, taking a knee two times -- on the second, his uncle and trainer, Evangelista Cotto, threw in the towel. A worn-out, exhausted, bloodied, and beaten Miguel Cotto was done on this night.

I had Cotto up 97-93; I thought his boxing skill and gameplan was just scoring enough to beat Margarito. But you could see it coming, too. Margarito worked hard, pounded on Cotto, and even in losing rounds did a big amount of damage.

Margarito is the best welterweight in the world. Bar none.

Hey, Floyd -- want to come back? Hey, Oscar -- want a piece of Margarito?

It was everything we thought it would be as a fight, too. Brutal, grueling, a war. Maybe the best fight of the year. Just a true battle of two world-class, great, tough fighters that beat each other down. Margarito was just too big, too relentless, too strong, too hard to hurt.

On the undercard, Cesar Canchila upset Giovanni Segura in another outstanding, grueling fight, and Bernabe Concepcion and Mike Alvarado scored predictable knockouts.

We'll have much more tomorrow on this big, big changing of the guard, Cotto's first loss, and the full rise to greatness of Antonio Margarito.

Thanks to everyone who joined us tonight. What a fight, huh?

THE SHOW STARTS AT 9PM EASTERN. JOIN US!

Reminder: WE WILL BE HERE tonight with live, round-by-round coverage of the PPV main event between Cotto and Margarito and the undercard. Everything kicks off at 9pm ET officially, but we'll know at 8:30 if Comcast decides to screw around, as is always a worry on PPV night.

In today's boxing world, what we want isn't so often what we get.

Yes, 2007 was a shining year for the sport, but how has 2008 been? Really. Kind of spotty, and that might be being generous. We have been treated to two truly sensational contests, but both were rematches (Vazquez-Marquez III and Marquez-Pacquiao II). We've seen Kelly Pavlik beat Jermain Taylor (another rematch) and a joke mandatory.

We've seen Miguel Cotto steamroll an unqualified Alfonso Gomez. Oscar de la Hoya treated us to a dirt-dull 12-round decision over Steve Forbes, an infomercial for a fight that now isn't even going to happen.

Tito Trinidad returned and was wiped out by an old Roy Jones. Joe Calzaghe finally came to the States, and did so with his biggest win ever, yes, but the fight itself? Bernard'd!

Ricky Hatton came back from his first career loss by beating Juan Lazcano in Manchester. The hyped Abraham-Miranda rematch was a demolition job. Floyd Mayweather retired. Chris Byrd and Stevie Johnston should.

And then you have those darned heavyweights, the biggest fight of their year being the embarrassing Klitschko-Ibragimov affair.

Only rarely have we been treated to the unexpectedly memorable (Casamayor-Katsidis, Diaz-Campbell, the Vera upset of Andy Lee).

I'm a fan of boxing. But I am not a cheerleader. Like Coolio said, it's time for sumpin' new.

Tonight, we will see something new. The welterweight crown is vacant, and it won't be truly decided tonight. But the No. 1 man in the division, Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto, is ready to get back in there with one of the best, as he lines up to face Mexican banger Antonio Margarito.

The Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry in all sports (and elsewhere) is very old, has a strong tradition, and is maybe best showcased inside of the squared circle, where men are men and it's one-on-one.

The passion in the building tonight in Vegas will be electric, of that I have no doubt. But how about the action?

Cotto has given us many memorable fights in his young, undefeated career. He's gone toe-to-toe and beaten the likes of Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Ricardo Torres, DeMarcus Corley and Paulie Malignaggi, superb fights all of them. He's blown away legitimate, tough fighters like Carlos Quintana and Alfonso Gomez.

But has he ever faced the will and pressure of a fighter like Margarito before? Torres might come close, but Ricardo's chin probably doesn't stack up to that of the Tijuana Tornado. Margarito never comes to do anything less than fight -- brawl, even. He fully embodies the stereotype of the Mexican warrior that will go out on his shield if he has to, a fighter that will attempt to win at all costs, taking every risk he needs to in order to ensure victory.

He has proven that many times in his career. If it weren't for a slow start against Paul Williams last July, I fully believe he would have won that fight and we'd have already seen Cotto-Margarito come and go. In that case, we might just be gearing up for a rematch.

Cotto is the favorite. At 32-0 with 26 knockouts on his record, he might seem like a one-punch type of cat for the uninitiated. Frankly, nothing could be further from the truth. He does not at all have one-punch power, but he is such a relentless and seemingly tireless worker that knockouts tend to come naturally. He beat Zab Judah into near-submission last year; it was probably the worst beating that Judah has ever taken. And if Shane Mosley was any less of a man, the same likely would have happened to "Sugar" in November.

Watching him make Alfonso Gomez look like a helpless child this past April was fairly amazing. It was the sort of fight where you felt bad for the guy being beaten on, but also in genuine awe and appreciation of the hammering being doled out. Cotto treated Gomez like a sparring partner -- a bad one that had insulted him prior to the headgear being put on.

On the Cotto-Mosley undercard, we saw a rebirth of Antonio Margarito. With his record, and the level of danger that comes with fighting him, he could have been pushed aside.

Saying he'd never start as slowly again as he did against Williams, Margarito took on tough veteran Golden Johnson and obliterated him in under one full round. It was a beatdown the likes of which made any observer really just say, "Well, damn." At Margarito's age, a lot of guys lose hunger. Tony found hunger and then some after losing to Williams.

He shared a card again this April with Cotto, squaring off against a revenge-minded Kermit Cintron, a Puerto Rican titleholder he'd laid waste to years prior when Cintron was unbeaten.

It happened again. Cintron, a monster puncher, threw everything he had at Margarito, who simply and calmly walked through shot after shot to get inside on Cintron and beat the crap out of him. A body shot ended it. Margarito seemed to want to do even more damage, almost begging Cintron to continue on. Like he wished he hadn't just beaten the will to fight out of a good fighter.

And so we arrive at this. The battle. The fight that will hopefully kickstart a grand second half of 2008 for boxing. A hope that might be futile, with such lackluster (in terms of action) matchups as Calzaghe-Jones and Pavlik-Hopkins on the slate, plus whatever grand show Oscar puts on in December. And don't think for a second that after he watches tonight's fight, Oscar will really want to put his face on the line against the winner of this one.

Cotto sits as a -275 favorite entering the fight, Margarito as a +215 underdog. It seems that the entire world is picking Cotto to win a grueling contest. But there is also no one in the world that can't foresee Margarito being the man to take the "0" away from the toast of Puerto Rico.

There aren't a whole lot of fights that come down the pipe that promise to be as good as this one should be. The last time I felt this way about a matchup, it was prior to the first meeting of Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. The style clash is premade for fireworks, drama, blood and heavy doses of pain on both sides of the equation.

No more time to wait. No more time to think about the fight. It's here. It's time for Cotto-Margarito.

I can't hype this one any more than it has been. I can't tell anyone any more than they've heard that this is a MUST-SEE FIGHT.

it is already a Fight of the Year candidate. Two rugged, proud fighters that never fail to bring action. When's the last time a Cotto fight let you down? When's the last time a Margarito fight wasn't worth watching?

Throw in the age-old Puerto Rico v. Mexico battle, and you've got a passionate crowd to go along with what promises to be an all-out assault from both men.

It's the sort of matchup people claim is missing from boxing. And with what I'd truthfully consider a slight down year following an excellent 2007 in the sport, it's just what the doctor ordered right now.

Cotto and Margarito will not disappoint. Everyone is picking Miguel, and it's hard to pick against him. But Tony Margarito will make this more than competitive, you can bet the mortgage on that.

I've been able to free myself up for fight night, so now all that stands in my way is Comcast's spotty record for actually putting the fight through. But we will be here tomorrow night with live, round-by-round coverage, come hell or high water. We hope you'll join us for what promises to be one of the biggest, best nights of the year.

I haven't been giving this fight its proper hype, and for that, I apologize. I've been real life busy (I did get out to see The Dark Knight tonight, and if you haven't, I encourage you to do so), and there's a horrible potential situation that might prevent me from seeing the fight live on Saturday night. I ask you all to do some ritual chanting or whatever the hell it is that people do to send some good vibes my way. (Disclaimer: It's really nothing serious, I might just wind up with unavoidable plans, plans I am thus far unsuccessful at talking my out of. Can you believe this jive?)

Anyway, I do want to post this fan trailer that's spreading around YouTube and Myspace, because I think it's excellently done.

If you're not excited for this fight, you don't have a pulse.

Championship vacancies can be filled by winning a box-off between The Ring’s number-one and number-two contenders, or, in certain instances, a box-off between our number-one and number-three contenders.

Currently, the welterweight championship of the world is vacant, with Floyd Mayweather, Jr., off doing his retired thing. Miguel Cotto is ranked No. 1 in the world by The Ring. Antonio Margarito is ranked No. 4.

Rules are rules, and they're there for a reason. It's not easy to earn a legitimate world championship, or at least it shouldn't be.

But do you think The Ring should recognize the winner of the upcoming Cotto-Margarito super fight as the new and true welterweight champion?

Margarito is ranked behind Shane Mosley and Paul Williams. Mosley lost to Cotto last November, but it was a great, close fight, and I agree with those two guys at 1-2. I also can't really argue with Williams ahead of Margarito, because Williams outlasted Margarito in July of 2007, though I left that fight with the impression that a rematch would absolutely go the other way.

Considering the unlikely status of seeing Cotto-Williams any time soon or a Cotto-Mosley rematch, I'm sort of torn on whether or not The Ring should make a big exception in this case.

I think we can all agree that No. 1 is Cotto. But after that, I could see any order of Mosley-Williams-Margarito being totally defensible. In filling title vacancies, The Ring is a slave to its own idea, and it is a fair idea. But every rule has a loophole, or at least a situation that begs for change. In filling a vacant title, perhaps the magazine should accept a fight where the No. 1 ranked boxer in the division fights anyone they rank within their top five. After all, those are certainly legit world title contenders, are they not?

Vacancies would be filled easier, and while they might not be THE BEST fight, they'd be worthwhile matchups, risks on both sides. Real fights. We wouldn't have to sit around hoping that Wladimir Klitschko fights Sam Peter or Ruslan Chagaev, we could crown a champion if Wlad decided to go after that fight with mandatory contender Alexander Povetkin (ranked fifth).

This system wouldn't be perfect, either, of course, but there are rare occasions like this one where you have what is a perfectly acceptable world championship-caliber fight. It doesn't happen often enough (No. 1 fighting Nos. 2-5) to make a major difference, anyway. It's not a complete changing of the rules, just a tweaking that will promote both the lineal titles -- which should be emphasized by everyone -- and good fights.

What say you? Should The Ring recognize Cotto-Margarito as a world championship fight?