Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito on PPV December 3rd: Notes on a Stacked Card

You have to give Top Rank credit. In a year that has been filled with pay-per-view main events that ranged from the disappointing (Pacquiao-Mosley) to the controversial (Mayweather-Ortiz) to the downright embarrassing (Hopkins-Dawson), Bob Arum and his team are stacking the year's final PPV event. Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito II on December 3 has several fight-of-the year candidates.

Prior to the start of Saturday night's Nonito Donaire-Omar Narvaez card, Top Rank held a press conference in Madison Square Garden to promote the event and to present some of the under card fighters and their promotional teams to the media.

At first glance, Cotto-Margarito looks questionable as a quality PPV fight. While Cotto, 36-2 (29) is ranked number one in the world at 154 pounds, Margarito, 38-7 (27) and a former welterweight and junior middleweight title holder, is currently ranked outside of the Top 10 at any weight.

However, one of Cotto's two career losses came against Margarito via TKO, and given the "hand wrap" controversy that has emerged around Margarito since, Cotto can be justified in his hunger for revenge; for justice, even.

Top Rank's promotional tag for this event is accurate: "This time it's personal." It is hard to imagine that these two ring warriors with a combined knockout ratio of 76 percent will not come to fight. 

But Cotto-Margarito II is merely the icing on the cake. This card will feature three more fights which could easily be premium cable channel main event fights.

Undefeated welterweight contender and Philadelphia native Mike Jones, 25-0 (19), will meet Sebastian Lujan, 38-5-2 (24), of Argentina. Undefeated lightweight Brandon Rios, 28-0-1 (21), will defend his WBA title against Manchester, England's John Murray, 31-1 (18).

And in one of the most eagerly anticipated rematches in recent years, junior middleweights Pawel Wolak, 29-1-1 (19), and Delvin Rodriguez, 25-5-3 (14) will look to settle the score following their thrilling, fight-of-the-year candidate draw last July. 

And it's all going down in one the greatest fight venues in the world, New York City's Madison Square Garden. 

Miguel Cotto: The Party Is Going to Be at His House

According to the press packets Top Rank handed out at the press conference, Miguel Cotto has sold more tickets at Madison Square Garden than any other fighter in this millennium.

Cotto is the home team in the Garden. He is the Knicks, the Rangers and Jay Z. This is a fight that has a legitimate professional wrestling, good guy versus bad guy, promotional angle. When Cotto starts his walk to the ring on December 3rd he's going to get a "face pop" that would make Hulk Hogan proud.

In what is one of the greatest lines ever used to describe a fighter, Paulie Malignaggi described fighting Cotto in the Garden on the eve of the Puerto Rico Day Parade as "like fighting the Devil in Hell." 

Cotto was heavily favored against Margarito going into their July 2008 clash. He was in control during the early round, but the larger Margarito kept pressing forward. He wore Cotto down and put him away by TKO in 11 rounds.

Then, in January of 2009, Margarito's hand wraps were confiscated prior to his title defense against Shane Mosley. They were found to contain plaster. Mosley went on to knock out Margarito in nine, after the Mexican had upset Cotto and Kermit Cintron in his previous two fights. 

There has never been any proof that Margarito fought with loaded hand wraps against Cotto. But he beat Cotto in his fight immediately preceding the Mosley fight when Cotto was undefeated, heavily favored and looked to have the fight in hand early on.

Either way, it's a defeat Cotto desperately wants to avenge. 

When it comes to the total package of selling tickets and in-ring talent, Cotto is among the sport's biggest stars. He doesn't just "sell tickets" to a local fan base, he sells them to a local fan base in such iconic boxing venues as Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium. 

People can recite whatever cliches they want about boxing being dead, but when Miguel Cotto headlines Madison Square Garden in a grudge match come December the third, you can bet the entire joint is going to be buzzing and alive with electricity. 

Antonio Margarito: The Man in the Black Hat

So how does a guy who has seven losses and was involved in the most high profile cheating scandal in recent years end up in two pay-per-view main events in two years?

First of all, the hand wrap scandal may very well have been good for his career. It's always easier to promote a fight when one guy is wearing the black hat and Margarito's involvement in controversy has probably made him more marketable.

When my buddy and I were trying to talk some casual and even non-casual boxing fans into watching Margarito against Pacquiao, explaining the hand wrap scandal made them much more interested—they wanted to see the smaller Pacman teach the cheater a lesson.

The other reason Margarito remains a high profile fighter is because, bad guy or not, he is always willing to stand and exchange, which equals fan-friendly fights. There was really never a moment of dramatic suspense in his one-sided loss against Pacquiao, but the action was nevertheless exciting.

When he enters the ring for a rematch with Cotto, a fighter who has very personal reasons for "wanting to teach that cheater a lesson," it is hard to believe that we will get anything less than an outright war.  

Mike Jones vs Sebastian Lujan: Winner Gets Andre Berto...or Maybe Pacman?

Arum noted that this fight, in theory, is a No. 1 contender eliminator fight for a shot at IBF welterweight champion Andre Berto. But Arum noted "One of the challenges for me promoting a fighter like Manny Pacquiao is to continue finding credible opponents for him." He went on to add that the winner of this fight could very well end up being a springtime opponent for Manny Pacquiao instead.

Arum singled out Jones' co-promoter Russell Peltz as somebody who would work with other promoters. From a "read-between-the-lines" perspective, probably the most interesting statement I heard from Arum last Saturday night was his comment when discussing this fight: "Most of the time I've been in this business, promoters have worked together."

The implication seems clear to me: Arum feels that Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s team is uninterested in "working together" and so he is busy developing alternative foes for his prized Filipino champ instead.

He could certainly have worse raw material to work with than Mike Jones. Jones combines blue chip talent with a blue collar work ethic. The packet I got from the press conference quotes him as saying: "I guess I got my discipline from my dad. He's been working for a long time, putting food on the table and everything, and I'm just doing the same thing for my kids."

At the press conference, Jones, who is soft-spoken and earnest, made himself readily available to reporters. His fight with the veteran Argentinian, Lujan, should be no walk in the park, but he should win it. Jones seems to clearly realize that beyond that fight, some very rare opportunities await him.

If a person who had no idea who didn't follow boxing saw Mike Jones in an elevator or standing on a street corner last Saturday night, they might still very well have thought to themselves: "My, that is one determined looking dude." 

Brandon Rios vs John Murray: Yet Another Fight-of-the-Year Candidate

Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios is a relentless pressure fighter and is undefeated in 29 fights, with 21 KOs and a single draw to mar his record. He has a brash, passionate personality and flirts with outright cockiness.

Depending upon your tolerance for that type of guy, he may or may not be the sort of guy you'd want to sit next to while watching a game in a sports bar, but he is almost certainly a guy you would want to watch fight. 

Interviewed in The Ring last month he stated: "When you come to a Brandon Rios fight, that's exactly what you will see, a slugfest...it's nothing that I try to do, but just the style I have."

Ranked number nine in the lightweight division by The RIng, Murray, 31-1 (18) is another tough fighter out of Manchester, England. His sole career loss was to fellow Brit Kevin Mitchell.

Pawel Wolak vs Delvin Rodriguez II: Merry Christmas, Fight Fans

The main event on this card is juicy indeed, but this junior middleweight under card clash between Wolak and Rodriguez just might be the more eagerly anticipated rematch among the hardcore fans. Even if you missed that fight, there's a good chance you caught Wolak's post-fight face on one of those gruesome Bleacher Report slide shows.

Even in a sport where being tough is a prerequisite, the rugged Polish immigrant Wolak stands out. This is a guy who has adopted the legendary "Raging Bull" nickname and the sport's collective reaction has been "Yup, that sounds about right to me."

Wolak continues to work as a roofer—at the press conference he said he enjoys the work and feels it makes him tougher both physically and mentally. He does however stop working during a training camp. "So no more roofing for me for awhile," he noted. 

Rodriguez, 6'0" tall and lean, is the perfect matador to Wolak's bull. When asked by a reporter before the press conference if he felt he had done enough to win the first fight, he nodded, saying "I thought my punches were more accurate and effective."

Both fighters spoke about each other respectfully at the press conference. Unlike the other rematch at the top of the card, there is no rancor here, just two extremely determined fighters.

But expect no less of a war because of it.