ShareThisTop Rank boxing promotions boss Bob Arum couldn't have written a better script if he had hired Sylvester Stallone.
Saturday night's World Boxing Association Super World junior-middleweight title fight at Madison Square Garden will be worth watching just because current champion Miguel Cotto and challenger Antonio Margarito are two of the better fighters.
But this match has the makings of a Hollywood sequel since they fought in 2008. In Las Vegas, Margarito won after pounding Cotto's face into a pulp. Cotto's wife, Melissa, cried at ringside and left.
A tough-looking Puerto Rican, Cotto is bald with many tattoos, one in the likeness of his deceased father for whom he tearfully dedicates this rematch. He is a soft-spoken man who shuns entourages for family and friends.
A tough-talking Mexican, Margarito has long hair and always wears sunglasses. He plays the role of villain well. In 2009, he was found with plaster of Paris, which hardens when moist, in his handwraps and suspended for a year.
Though it can't be proven, it's believed Margarito used the same illegal substance in his wraps in his first fight with Cotto.
In a two-part HBO walk-up, Cotto softly calls Margarito an evil man and a criminal. Margarito vulgarly says he didn't cheat in their previous fight and accuses Cotto of crying.
If there is a Hollywood ending to this sequel, it would be Cotto winning by a punishing knockout, lifting his title belt and proclaiming, "Yo, Melissa, we did it!"
(Contact Victor Contreras at vcontreras(at)sacbee.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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