Cotto vs. Margarito: Poor Effort Will Tarnish Margarito's Legacy Beyond Repair

While Miguel Cotto declared his fight with Antonio Margarito on Saturday the biggest of his career, Margarito should have been thinking the same thing.

Instead, he came out flat and slow—and frankly unprepared for the beating he was about to receive.

Margarito had some flashes in the grudge match, but he didn't lie to rest the perception that some of his career was aided by potentially using illegal hand wraps in some of his fights.

When he was discovered with a Plaster of Paris-like substance in his gloves before his fight with Shane Mosley in 2009, everything changed. Not only did he lose respect in the eyes of many in the boxing world, Cotto questioned whether Margarito was fighting illegally in their 2008 duel.

Saturday's fight wasn't the close fight we expected after the grueling endeavor in 2008 in which Margarito won via 11th-round TKO. Cotto was by far the superior fighter, and Margarito's raw power couldn't make up for this fact.

Margarito was knocked around for nine rounds before doctors finally put an end to it, his right eye a bloody mess. When Margarito should have been protecting that eye after he broke his right orbital bone against Manny Pacquiao in 2010, he blindly walked into Cotto's punches instead.

For Cotto, it was redeeming.

He was the No. 1 welterweight in the world before getting knocked down the rankings after his first fight with Margarito.

For Margarito, it was disgracing, only furthering suspicion that he may have been aided by illegal hand wraps in more than one fight during his career.

It's a shame, because we don't know for certain if Margarito used illegal hand wraps beyond the Mosley fight, but he needed to prove something to us on Saturday so we could dismiss speculation.

But Margarito didn't just lose—he didn't even look like the storied boxer he was supposed to be.

Now, despite a 38-8 career record, Margarito's legacy will ultimately be tarnished, and, unfortunately, his past accomplishments seem nothing but a distant memory.