I TOLD YOU SO! Miguel Cotto, becomes the new WBA Welterweight champion by forcing Carlos Quintana to quit on his stool. Antonio Margarito cruises his way to a close but still comfortable majority decision and Ronald Winky Wright wins an easy decision.

Ok...ok... I'm going to settle down. I have to admit, I was a bit scared that my picks wouldn't win. In the Cotto VS Quintana fight, Carlos Quintana showed tons of movement and the ability to keep Miguel Cotto off of him while returning decent counters. Quintana was a proven welterweight with a champion to boot. Cotto really showed his maturity in the fight. He used calm and consistent pressure to break Quintana down. His jabs would constantly stop a big a Quintana shot by allowing Quintana to spear his face against Cotto's extended fist. His left hook to the body backed up Quintana as early as round one and he continued to chase Quintana throughout the fight leaping in and throwing left and right hooks at will. Quintana had speed but was obviously hurt by the left hooks to the body. He seemed unwilling to let his hands go when Cotto was throwing to the body. Quintana spent much of the fight bouncing all around the ring trying to outreach Cotto and sneak in single shots. In the 4th round, Quintana had success with a sneaky left hand which he used to momentarily stun Cotto by battering his midsection. His punches only came in singles while Cotto constantly moved and threw combinations. Cotto took Quintana's punches well and Quintana was never really able to hurt Cotto more than to stun him a bit and make him blink every now and then. Cotto mixed punches upstairs and downstairs in rapid succession and his reach is deceptively long. His bulging biceps make his arms appear to be short and stocky but when he rotates his shoulders his punches fly out like lasers. Contrary to what some people may think, I had Cotto winning all the rounds up to the 5th, where he knocked Quintana down twice with mostly body shots and almost finished him. Quintana was saved by the bell and did not want to come out for the 6th round. Cotto forced Quintana to fight his fight and therefore he won the rounds. He also landed the harder shots, the cleaner shots, more combos, and more total punches. Quintana did land some clean shots but they just didn't hurt Cotto. Cotto has really proven himself in my eyes to be a true champion. He seems to be even stronger and more relentless at this weight and might be a challenge for Mayweather after all! Clottey won the first four rounds easily with his left hooks and occasional straight right hands. Mainly, doubling and tripling up the left hooks did the most damage, especially since Margarito kept swinging out wide hooks and wide uppercuts.

Margarito also had me a bit worried in the fight against the strong contender in Clottey. Margarito was awfully cautious in the first round with Joshua trying to sneak out quick jab counters. Clottey was actually successful in landing hard punches and getting his left hands in quite well when Margarito missed shots. True to his promise, Clottey did block many of Margarito's punches throughout the fight. Clottey had no problem blocking many of Margarito's punches in the early rounds and returning clean hard counters in return. Clottey's punches snapped back Margarito's head in numerous occasions. Margarito's punches seemed to be slow and a bit wide for most of the fight against Clottey. Clottey fought a perfect 4 rounds for the first one third of the fight and then became practically comatose in the 5th round where he did almost nothing except to block Margarito's constant punches. The 5th round seemed to be a turning point in the fight because Margarito became more and more active as Clottey changed from being an active counter-puncher to a passive defender. I think this was purely the fault of his injured left hand which he complained about to his trainer in between rounds. The 6th round had Margarito becoming more and more active as Clottey would punch in short spurts only occasionally when he felt he could land cleanly. I felt very sorry for Clottey up to this point because he had fought a perfect fight be his left hand was hurt and there was nothing he could do about it except to follow his corner's advice and use the right hand. In the mid rounds Margarito began to sharpen up his punches a bit by throwing shorter quicker uppercuts to the head and hooks to the body of Joshua Clottey. Clottey also showed impressive counters with perfect timing and speed but he just couldn't do enough to win the rounds and Margarito continues to bang away at the injured Clottey. In the 9th round, the crowd screamed as Margarito pushed Clottey. He seemed quite content and comfortable with blocking, supply, ducking, and even countering in the corner. Clottey was a tough fighter and he seemed very game even as Margarito ripped multiple hooks to his body and head. Clottey seemed to tire in the 10th round as he shuffled around the ring circling away from Margarito with his hands down. The 2nd half of the fight was easily Margarito's as he was really the only active fighter in the ring against the hurt Clottey. You have to respect Joshua Clottey for his display of skill, power, and heart. He fought the second half of the fight on an injured hand and remained game and still landed beautiful counters. The most important thing this fight demonstrated to me was that Antonio Margarito is not in the same class of Floyd Mayweather. I don't know if it was ring rust but he seemed a bit slow against a fast and skilled boxer. Clottey had no problems ducking, slipping, moving out of range and countering against Margarito. Margarito on the other hand seemed slow, seemed to be inaccurate and horrible balance as Clottey stretched around his punches and hit him with double left hooks and right hand counters throughout the fight. Margarito seems lanky and he often squares up against his opponent taking away his balance and his overall punching power. They key thing I noticed was that Clottey was often easily stepping out range as Margarito punched the air. I just can't see how Margarito would win against a faster, sharper, and more defensively skilled fighter in Floyd Mayweather. I have to admit, I wanted to see the fight before but as of the moment, I am quite sure that Mayweather would easily win the fight despite him being naturally smaller than Antonio Margarito. Margarito is a non-stop puncher but that doesn't make him a great pressure fighter like everyone claims him to be. I think Miguel Cotto could also beat Margarito.

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