Cotto vs. Margarito is On - With No Rematch Clause
Posted by Igor Frank on 05.20.2008
Second day of the press tour to announce “The Battle” or “La Batalla” between two welterweight champions Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito took place in Los Angele’s plush Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.
Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank
"The Battle" will take place on Saturday, July26th, 2008 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be televised Live on Pay-Per-View by HBO. Tickets will go on sale Thursday, May 22nd at 10:00 am pacific time and will be priced at $700, $500, $400. $300, $200, $100 and will be available for purchase at www.ticketmaster.com or www.mgmgrand.com.
Bob Halloran, president of MGM Mirage Inc. started the press conference by thanking Bob Arum of Top Rank for making this tremendous fight and announced the odds; Cotto is favorite at -220, with Margarito at +180 underdog. Bob Arum was very excited that this epic battle would take place and be along the lines of traditional rivalry between Mexican and Puerto Rican champions in which Puerto Rico is ahead of Mexico by 38 to 20. Antonio Margarito thanked Bob Arum and Cotto for this fight and promised that this would be a fight of the year and suggested that Cotto should train very hard for this day, to which Cotto replied that he does not have to do it, because he trains hard for every fight. Both warriors were respectful and showed a high regard for each other.
This is a battle for all the marbles where both champions take a great risk to their careers to be in this fight, the winner becomes the best welterweight in the world and there is no rematch clause according to Bob Arum. The media is buzzing about this fight already and not too many want to offer their predictions. So if you would like to see one fight this year live, this is it, make plans to get to Las Vegas on July 26th, 2008 to witness part of boxing history.
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Igor Frank is a boxing writer for the Burbank Times and a regular contributor to 411mania.com.
