Cotto vs Margarito: Team Margarito Complaining Loudly About Stoppage

Antonio Margarito's co-manager Francisco Espinoza feels that last night's fight was no great victory for Miguel Cotto, and that the only reason Margarito lost is because of a doctor with an itchy trigger finger. From Rey Colon at BoxingScene.com:

"It wasn't a great victory for Cotto. It was a great victory for the doctor who was concerned about the swelling. Great victories are won by fighting. Margarito is a warrior. Cotto was very hurt, very hurt."

You know, Espinoza is saying what he should as the manager of Antonio Margarito. Margarito's entire team will take this tone. And truth be told, I think they all believe it to some degree, and that Margarito himself believes it 150%.

But Margarito is a crazy person willing to lose an eye if it were to ever come to that. I'm not saying he was in danger of being beaten immediately blind last night, but if he had been, he would still have wanted to fight. He's a fighter who doesn't care about his health -- I mean, obviously he does, but he's at the far end of that. Margarito really has little regard for this stuff compared even to most boxers. He's a pure fighter, and it's what he does.

Here's what Margarito had to say, via Bill Emes of BoxingScene.com:

"There was a little bit of favortism because my eye was worse when I fought Pacquiao. The doctor asked me three times about how many fingers I was holding. I answered correctly three times. I asked the doctor for one more round but he didn't want to give it to me. I felt like this was the continuation of the first fight. I think the last couple of rounds would have been mine."

Unfortunately for Margarito, boxing commissions have rules, and they have ringside physicians for a reason, and that's why this is a sport, and not back alley brawling. Margarito is fighting the rest of his career with an eye that probably isn't going to hold up to an opponent who can do even a decent job of targeting it. If they fight where the doctors are strict, this is going to happen again.

And someone should have stopped the Pacquiao fight, too.