Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito 2: Bitter Rivals Gear Up for a Great Fight

Cotto versus Margarito was dubbed The Battle before the fight even started in July 2008, and it didn't take long to realize the clash would live up to its name.

It was widely lauded as the Fight of the Year, an 11-round slug-fest that saw both fighters go back and forth and show tremendous heart and grit, not to mention the ability to take a punch.

Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are revered in their home countries of Puerto Rico and Mexico, respectively, and their fight in 2008 demonstrated this quite emphatically. It ended with Margarito's TKO of Cotto in the 11th round.

At the time, Cotto was ranked as the No. 1 welterweight in boxing and Margarito was ranked as the No. 4 welterweight, according to The Ring magazine.

Margarito's upset gave him the No. 1 spot. Then came the controversy.

In 2009's Margarito-Mosley match, Margarito was found by Mosley's trainer, Naazim Richardson, to have a white substance in his hand wraps. This led to Margarito's hands being re-wrapped.

After the fight, the California Department of Justice confirmed the substance resembled "plaster of Paris," which is known to solidify with moisture and pack a bigger punch.

Margarito and his trainer were banned from boxing for a year.

That same year, it was discovered Cotto's hand wraps against Mosley resembled his wraps against Cotto in 2008. This led to even more controversy, specifically if Margarito had been doing this all along.

In that sense, Margarito has a chance to silence those doubts with a victory over Cotto on December 3 at Madison Square Garden.

Both boxers will be fighting for the light middleweight title this time around. Cotto's record at junior middleweight is 2-0, while Margarito holds a record of 1-1, his loss coming against Manny Pacquiao in 2010 and two fights after the Mosley bout.

This fight has everything you could want—two great boxers with stunning records and plenty of bad blood between the two camps.

While we're all waiting for a possible super-fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., we can rest assured Cotto versus Margarito II will deliver in the meantime.