Cotto-Mayorga? Margarito-Quintana?

by Kevin Gonzalez on Feb 11, 2008 1:35 AM EST in Boxing News Analysis

Talk about the rumor mill. According today's El Nuevo Día, Ricardo Mayorga has signed a contract to fight Miguel Cotto on July 19th, should Cotto get by Alfonso Gomez. As you may recall, Mayorga weighed in at 165 for his fight against Fernando Vargas last November. Cotto-Mayorga would be at 147.

Part of me doesn't believe that these reports are true. I would be pretty surprised if this fight were to come off. First of all, Cotto (or Arum, on Cotto's behalf) doesn't seem to be in the habit of lining up opponents when they already have a fight scheduled. Say that they wanted to make the Mayorga fight, though: Why even bother with Gomez, then? But, let's assume for a second that the report is true. I'm a big fan of Mayorga's, but I wouldn't be interested in seeing him fight Cotto. If (and this is a big 'if') Mayorga were able to get down to 147, Cotto would roll right over him. What's more: it wouldn't prove a damn thing. Say what you will about Mayorga (and I'm a big fan), but the guy's record is 29-6. (And, as an aside, I would be much more interested in Forrest-Mayorga 3.)

In another intriguing story, also from El Nuevo Día, it seems as though the Cintron-Margarito rematch is not quite set in stone. As you've probably heard by now, this fight was supposed to take place on April 12th, on HBO, as the co-featured bout to Cotto-Gomez. However, after Quintana's victory on Saturday, Margarito's manager (Francisco Espinoza) contacted the WBO to let them know they are interested in fighting Quintana ASAP, and that Margarito has no prior commitments.

Here's where the alphabelt belt beurocracy comes in: Because Quintana was not Williams' mandatory, he is now obligated to fight the top-ranked contender in his first defense. In the WBO's case, that would be Margarito.

I think Margarito-Quintana would be a pretty good fight (I would probably give a slight edge to Quintana), but I would rather see Cintron-Margarito happen first. Apparently, it's possible that it won't happen at all.

It seems as if these two stories are related in some ways. It has been speculated that Cotto would face the winner of Cintron-Margarito this summer if he were to get past Gomez. If Cintron-Margarito doesn't happen, that would leave the doors open for a different opponent (such as, um, Mayorga). As for Cintron: if the Margarito fight falls through, he would have no choice but to face Joshua Clottey.

I'm sure this will all start to make sense within the next couple of weeks. Personally, I would rather see Cintron-Margarito in April, with the winner then facing Cotto in July. Quintana-Margarito wouldn't bother me too much, but Cotto-Mayorga would.

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Cotto-Mayorga

Same feeling you have. I love both guys, but it's a no-brainer win for Cotto. Mayorga is wonderfully entertaining, but Cotto would massacre him.

Either Margarito fight sounds good to me. Cintron looking for revenge in an action war would be super, and Quintana-Margarito is just a good fight on paper, I think. Cintron-Clottey does not terribly interest me; I like Clottey, but Cintron's power would be too much for him. And Kermit has become a better fighter since the Margarito loss.

God, how would I rank the welters right now? I might try that sometime this week. Mayweather, Cotto, Mosley...Quintana at 4? Yeah, probably. After that, it's a clusterfuck.

by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2008 2:46 AM EST reply actions

Welters

I'd put Quintana at #4 too. Let's see:

Mayweather: #1 pound-for-pound in the world; fighting Oscar again; blah blah blah. Consider this: he has only beaten one guy on this list (Judah).
Cotto: In his four fights so far as welterweight, he's beaten three guys on this list, including the #3 and #4 guys. Consider this: Cotto handed Malignaggi, Quintana and Ricardo Torres the first losses of their respective careers. All three of them have gone on to win world titles, which they currently hold, and they all still have only one loss.
Mosley: Cotto's toughest opponent to date. I guess this ranking is somewhat subjective, but I think he's the clear #3 welterweight in the world. I base this not only on his career achievements, but on his performance against Miguel Cotto. Mosley proved that at 36, he's still got it, and I would favor him to beat anyone else in this list, save for Cotto and Mayweather.
Quintana: El Indio's performance on Saturday was no fluke. For the second time in his career, he came to fight on an HBO Boxing After Dark show as a stepping stone for a bigger-name opponent (not to mention a huge underdog), and, for the second time in his career, he proved all the naysayers wrong. Some of us weren't all that surprised at the oucome; right, SC?
Williams: I think Williams holds on to the spot above Margarito's, because--regardless of what happened on Saturday--he did beat Margarito less than a year ago. Instead of taking much away from him, I'm giving a lot of credit to Quintana for his win. Was Williams overrated? Yes, he was. But he's still a hell of a fighter, and I have no doubt he will win another title soon, be it at 147 or 154. (Also: unlike anyone on the bottom-half of this top-10--save Margarito--, he holds a victory over another fighter on this list).
Margarito: Margarito also holds a victory over someone on this list: Kermit Cintron. And, well, it wasn't just a "win"--it was a dominating knockout performance. So, despite the fact that Cintron currently holds a title, I still have to rank Margarito above him.
Cintron: He's the lowest ranked of the belt-holders because, truth be told, he hasn't beaten anyone of name. The only time he stepped into the ring with a top-tier welterweight, he got annihilated. He seems to have grown since then under the tutelage of Manny Steward. I'm not sure how a rematch with Margarito would play out, but I sincerely doubt it will be as one-sided as their first fight. But, until then, he stays at #7.
Collazo: The former WBA champ comes in at #8, and it partly has to do with the way he fared against Ricky Hatton. I think he beat Hatton. And had he not injured his hand early on, I think he would've given Mosley a much tougher fight. To this day--much like Quintana before the Williams fight--I think Collazo is still underrated.
Judah: I would have probably rated Judah higher right after his loss to Cotto. Even though he has won his last two fights, he's looked bad, going the distance against guys he should have knocked out early: he's looked rather slow, and the punching power hasn't been there. In short, he's starting to look like the 2008 version of Fernando Vargas, and I strongly favor Mosley to beat him.
Clottey: He has potential to be much higher up on this list, and I may be ranking him too low. The case could easily be made that Clottey is #8, above both Judah and Collazo. He was well on his way to beating Baldomir until he got DQ'd; he gave Margarito a close fight, which he may have won had he not gotten injured; and he thoroughly dominated Chico Corrales (who came in at a career high 149 pounds). To me, however, he still lacks that big victory and, unlike Cintron, he doesn't have a belt to lure people in. Now that Williams lost, Clottey will probably be the most avoided/feared guy in the division. No one has much to gain by fighting him, but so much to lose.

Berto's knocking at the door, I think, but he needs to step up his opposition (or wait for one of these guys to fall). All the guys in my top-10 have faced much tougher fighters. Actually, how's this for a stat? Every single guy in this top-10, save for Clottey, has held a major belt at welterweight at some point. It's a hell of a division, no doubt.

by Kevin Gonzalez on Feb 11, 2008 11:01 AM EST up reply actions

Rafael sez

Quintana could fight Mosley.

(I know you don't want to pay for a Mosley PPV, Scott, but HBO can only budget so many fights on the network. This could be worth it if they beef up the undercard)

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Feb 12, 2008 7:53 PM EST reply actions

oh I'll pay for Mosley

And a fight with Quintana would get my dollars, no question. What I don't want to pay for is Judah.

by Scott Christ on Feb 13, 2008 7:19 PM EST up reply actions

Question

I like Mosley-Quintana, though it seems like it would be a tougher fight for Quintana.

On a related note, I have a question: Does anyone know of any boxing journalist, or, hell, any individual, other than Harold Lederman who scored Saturday's fight for Williams?

Or anyone who actually thought Ricky Hatton was beating Mayweather at the time of the stoppage?

I just watched Williams-Quintana again, and I found his scorecard to be mind-boggling: he actually gave Williams the 11th round, for instance, which was as one-sided as it could get (for Quintana).

Maybe I'll write an actual "post" about this, but I think it's about time for HBO to get rid of Harold Lederman. Sad thing is, I kind of like his personality and his energy. But, man. It's a good thing his scorecards are not official.

by Kevin Gonzalez on Feb 12, 2008 11:35 PM EST reply actions

yeah

I actually really love Harold Lederman and used to find that I would generally agree with him. But I don't know what the hell he was seeing in Williams-Quintana for most of the fight. Like, seriously. "Williams is landin' with the right jab!" He actually said that! It's usually true of Williams. It was not on Saturday. Even Williams knew he lost.

Almost everyone I've talked to had it 116-112 for Quintana.

by Scott Christ on Feb 13, 2008 7:22 PM EST up reply actions