Cotto vs. Margarito 2: Why Stopping Fight Was the Right Move

Miguel Cotto put on an impressive performance against Antonio Margarito in the rematch held on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, but some still question the stoppage.

Before Round 10 started, the ringside doctor looked at Margarito's completely closed right eye and told him he could not go on. Cotto was awarded a TKO victory.

Some felt that, because Margarito went 12 rounds against Manny Pacquiao with a broken orbital bone, this is no different, yet the damage is different.

Margarito is repeating the same damage to the same surgically repaired eye. The New York State Athletic Commission was highly lenient to let the fight go on this long since the eye had been closed for many rounds.

What happened in Texas in the Pacquiao-Margarito bout a over a year ago was borderline criminal. That fight should have been stopped somewhere between Round 9 or 10 with the damage that was done.

Thanks to the prolonged damage Margarito took in the Pacquiao fight, his right eye became an easy target for Cotto's left hook to deform.

Margarito didn't rough Cotto up nearly enough to make anyone believe he was going to stop the Puerto Rican warrior over the course of the next three rounds.

Cotto had grown better at being evasive and Margarito had grown slower and proved much less successful at cornering and cutting off the ring from Cotto than he did during their previous fight in 2008.

Now it's time for Margarito to move on and relax, recover and maybe consider retirement.