Tijuana Tornado, Training Camp Notes
Posted by Igor Frank on 07.12.2008
Only fifteen days left, but who is counting, till “The Battle” a tremendous Showdown between two welterweight champions: Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, which is scheduled to take place on July 26th, 2008 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Arena. HBO Pay per View will start the telecast at 6:00 pm Pacific time.
As I am awaiting Bob Arum's response to the bold statement Margarito made last week: "I will finish Cotto in four," I decided to go back to Latin Snake Gym in Montebello, California and check on Tony's training one more time.
It is hot and muggy in the gym today, an atmosphere conducive to hard training. Antonio is warming up while waiting for his turn to spar and watching along with everybody else Jesus Soto Karass mixing it up in the ring with the guy I do not know. They are going at it pretty hard to the delight of everybody around. Karass has a serious challenge in front of him: a fight with David Estrada, the day before Margarito's battle with Cotto.
Finally, Antonio gets into the ring, today he is working on speed and goes eight rounds with two different opponents, who are smaller but fast. Note to myself, Margarito is human, even though he was besting his sparring partners he held back his power to avoid hurting them and strictly concentrated on speed and throwing a lot of punches. Antonio looks to be in tremendous shape and displayed movement in the ring that I have not seen before. One thing I noticed is how Tony digs his foot in to deliver his punches and the way he puts his body weight into every hook with maximum power. Margarito is not a better boxer in this fight, but he knows how to box; he has been doing it since he was five years old and he knows how to do it well. His movements are well practiced; his punches if at times a little wide are deliberate and designed to inflict pain: predator on the edge ready to unleash his furry. Tomorrow sparring will be for power and one of the opponents will be Alfredo Angulo, a rising super welterweight contender. I asked his trainer Clemente Medina, who favored Cotto two month ago, what he thought after we watched Antonio spar for eight rounds.
"He is too big and too strong for Cotto," said Clemente this time.
"Being his sparring partner, what do you think about the fight?" I asked "El Perro" Angulo. "I have to go with a Mexican," he replied smiling.
Antonio got to do some mitt work after sparring and was very impressive: he put together a combination of punches that were fast and crisp and about twenty five in one breath. Stay tuned for notes for more.
Ha,Ha,ha come on yeah you could go see quintana when he was training for cotto and he was looking good and they said he was the bigger guy and he was stronger,zab juda he was faster and was a harder puncher than cotto,then the sugar man the same thing better boxer faster and and to strong for cotto and im not talking about the last one the contender from mexico that used to fight with guys from 165 pounds.yeah i heard it all before and at the end it was all the same ending they all gat beat up by Miguel Cotto and margarito is not going to be any different.He is going to get beat the hell up.(VIVA PUERTO RICO).
Posted By: jsr9890 (Guest) on July 13, 2008 at 11:08 AM
F Puerto Ricans will cry this time when Cotto crash like their very own Kermit. Never impressed with PR boxers. They are thugs that are let loosed in the boxing field. No skills . Buahaahaha. Viva Mexico
Posted By: Dee Luna (Guest) on July 13, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Yeah thats why when it comes to boxing Puerto Ricans are up 39 to 18 oh my bad i guess you did not know that and remenber thank god always that puerto rico is not as big as mexico them does that makes you feel kind of dum.ha manito,chihuahua viva Puerto Rico oh one more thing is not cotto the one talking shit so i hope margarito can back all that shit he is talking about caused if not he is going to make the mexican look stupid.
Posted By: jsr3219 (Guest) on July 14, 2008 at 06:44 AM
