Cotto Knocks out Margarito: How He Was Also Able to TKO His Demons

It seems like Cotto finally was able to get his revenge.  Three years after he was beaten, Cotto was able to crush Margarito and punish him in a way that most boxing fans probably enjoyed a little too much.

Many fans probably enjoyed Cotto's battering of Margarito's eye round after round and some may have even wished that by the end of the fight that it would be too damaged for Margarito to ever fight again.

A great fight occurred, no controversy marred the ending, Cotto got his revenge and Margarito even might have won a few fans back with his beating.

But the fight has a bit more significance than that.

After the first Margarito fight, Cotto seemed to have lost something.  He wasn't the same fighter he had been.  Many fans believed that Margarito had taken something from the former Puerto Rican Olympian.

It wan't all terrible, as Cotto seemed to box more instead of just brawling as he had before, but at the same time, the unstoppable fighter that had once shown up in the ring, seemed to evaporate into thin air.

After Cotto lost to Pacquiao, many fans thought that he was finished, and in a way, he may have been.

It didn't matter that he had comeback bouts against Yuri Foreman or Ricardo Mayorga.  

The facts were that he had been beaten at the top level by Pacquiao and struggled in a fight with Joshua Clottey.  No matter what he did, the shadow of the first Margarito fight loomed over him.  It only got worse after Margarito got busted for the illegal substance in his pads which were almost put in during his fight with Shane Mosley.

Suddenly references were made to the Billy Collins-Luis Resto fight.  Had Margarito cheated, and if he had, had it irreparably damaged Cotto's career?

It was a question that fans had pushed around for a few years now, and it finally ended last night.

Instead of Cotto showing that he was a broken fighter who was afraid of Margarito's punches, or even getting hit at all, he was able to pick apart his hated nemesis and recreate the same vicious injury that Pacquiao had given Margarito.

Instead of slowly wilting under Margarito's punches and watching as his face was pounded heavily, Cotto was able to resist the onslaught and score the victory.

The fight not only revitalized Cotto's career, but proved there might have been truth in his words that Margarito cheated.

It could be true.

It could be something Cotto needed to believe.

But Cotto did do one thing last night.

He was able to beat the nagging doubts and questions from others and maybe from himself.

So, even though Margarito might have been beaten while still on his stool, the demons that plagued Cotto were down for the count.