Cotto vs. Margarito: Why It Is Now Impossible to Take Margarito Seriously

Honestly, was there ever any doubt that Miguel Cotto was going to beat the living daylights out of Antonio Margarito on Saturday night?

Not as far as I'm concerned.

Margarito's last fight was more than a year ago, and he spent that one getting beaten to a bloody pulp by Manny Pacquiao. Pac-Man gave Margarito a fractured right orbital bone for his troubles, and it was all too easy for Cotto to target the injury on Saturday night.

That's exactly what Cotto did, of course, and by the end of the fight Margarito's right eye had been rendered useless. The only real surprise is that Margarito was able to stick around until the 10th.

With three losses in his last four fights, it's clear that Margarito's career has fallen on hard times. If you're an optimist, you could say he's in a slump. If you're a realist, you could say he's finished.

The realist approach is the more reasonable one to take here. After all, if we know Margarito's last four fights have one thing in common, it's that he fought them all cleanly, which obviously hasn't been a good thing for him.

If you've been hiding under a rock for the past couple years, we know Margarito's last four fights have been clean because he got caught trying to use illegal hand wraps before his bout with Shane Mosley in 2009. Margarito would go on to receive a beating—a trend that was continued by Pac-Man and now Cotto.

Margarito's only win in his last four bouts? A unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia, an opponent who is not quite main-event material.

Given what we've seen in his recent fights, it's obvious that Margarito isn't main-event material either. If nothing else, you have to question whether or not his right eye will allow him to continue his career. Beyond that, you can question whether or not Margarito has enough skill to win a clean fight.

But hey, at least Margarito can still talk the talk. Despite the fact his second bout with Cotto was never close, Margarito insisted that he was getting the better of him; just like he did when they first fought in 2008, a bout in which Margarito may or may not have been using illegal wraps.

"I thought I threw the harder punches. I was doing fine," said Margarito of Saturday night's bout, per ESPN.com's Dan Rafael. "But I needed more rounds to beat him."

So why the stoppage then? 

"We were in the corner and they asked about my eye, and I told them how many numbers they were holding [up with their fingers]. But I knew they were out to protect Cotto. I was coming on."

Uh huh. And why should we believe you?

"I hurt him; look at his face," Margarito said. "I keep saying it: He hits like a girl. I never felt the punches. I never pulled back. He was the one pulling back."

Right...

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Margarito fits the mold of a washed-up boxer who thinks he's the greatest of all time. If that's what he wants to believe, fine. But if he thinks anybody is actually going to believe him, he better think again.

As of right now, my gut feeling is that we haven't seen the last of the Tijuana Tornado. He'll have to get his right eye straightened out again, but his name still draws enough water for the fights to keep coming.

No doubt he and his camp will move for a third bout with Cotto.

Regardless of when his next fight comes or who it is against, don't expect great things out of Margarito. We simply have too much evidence that he is no longer capable of great things.

Whether he ever was in the first place is certainly open for discussion.