Cotto
stops Pinto in six: wins vacant WBO Superlightweight
crown.
Santos retains WBO 154 title in controversial
split decision against Margarito in rematch.
- 
Top Rank / PR Promotions / HBO B.A.D. results from the Jose Miguel Agrelot Colisseum , San Juan Hato Rey Puerto Rico. 9/11/2004
Photo-Report by German Vilasenor @ ringside.
In the main event, the Puerto rican sensation Miguel Cotto (21-0, 17KOs) 5'6 proved his mettle as he erased his two amateur losses to the Brazilian KO artist and undefeated Kelson Pinto (20-1, 18 KO's ) 5'11 by stopping him in the sixth round.
The Top Rank promoted Cotto used a tight guard, chin stuck to his chest and wily, shifty skills to beat the lankier Pinto with a snappy jab, get on the inside to land clean left hooks after Pinto would get too far on the inside and miss his right and left hand bombs over Cotto's head.
Cotto proved too much of a good inside fighter with quick combinations when Pinto failed to stay on the outside where he found his better performance in the fight.
Although the well conditioned Pinto (weighed in at 146 come fight time) showed great heart and courage, the beggining of the end started early in the fight as Cotto (weighing in at 154 in the ring) landed a crushing right hand on Pinto's jaw, sending him down with a left cross to the head. Pinto made it to his feet and badly staggered unto the ropes in his haste to get up, managing to continue and end the round.
Pinto's better rounds followed as he was able to land some sharp, straight
shots from the outside, although many were blocked well by his foe.
After an exciting back and forth action with good body shots landed by Pinto and counter shots by Cotto in the fifth, the Puerto Rican hero dropped Pinto with a series of shots which left Pinto trying to tie up, as Cotto pulled away, leaving the Brazilian fumbling on the ground.
The valiant Pinto made it to his feet on very woobly legs and survive the round.
The end came as Cotto, sensing the soppage, jumped on his opponent, forcing the action against the ropes landing short, hard shots on the inside, as Pinto crumbled to the canvas, Cotto managed to land a good body shot for good measure on the way down.
Athough Pinto managed to dust himself off the canvas, the ref Roberto Ramirez halted the battering at 32 seconds into the sixth round.
Another accidental headbutt causes controversial stoppage in Santos Vs Margarito rematch.
In the co-feature, in a rematch of a 2001 WBO Welterweight meeting which ended abruptly and violently in the first round due to a clash of heads. The WBO Welterweight champion Antonio Margarito had his second shot at the Puerto Rican Daniel Santos, this time with the chance at the WBO Superwelterweight world title go up in smoke with a severe cut on his right eyebrow forcing a stoppage in the tenth round.
The Puerto Rican Daniel Santos went on the retain the WBO Superwelter title.
.
Since their first meeting, Margarito went on to win the vacant WBO Welter
title as Santos moved up in weight, with the Mexican scoring a 10th
round KO over Antonio Diaz in March 2002.
After defending his belt three times, with subsequent second round stoppages over Andrew ''six heads'' Lewis, and Hercules Kyvelos, a unanimous decision over old foe Danny Perez and a non title bout (KO in two) over Maurice Brantley, Margarito once more challenged Santos for his WBO 154 strap.
Margarito cut again.
Santos, who had to lose a 1/2 LB. after failing to make the weight, showed up weighing 170 to Margarito's 160 Lbs.
Santos,
known as a runner / slapper (after being knocked out a few years back
by Koffi Jantuah) surprised everyone watching, by standing his ground
in the first round and managing to stun Margarito with a hard left shot
to the temple briefly staggering the challenger.
Margarito quickly recovered and fought back well, athough the round
was Santos by virtue of that one shot.
The second round featured Margarito adjusting quickly to Santo's power and virtually walking through his bombs in order to open up with wide body shots forcing the Puerto Rican backwards and becoming proggresively more defensive as the fight went on.
Santos came back in the thrid round behind good head shots, taking a brief lead by rounds end in the maount of punches landed between the two.
The fourth went Margarito's way as he kept the pressure, took Santos unto the ropes landing some hard shots up and down with Santo's nearly going down in a couple of spots in the round.
The
fifth goes to Margarito also.
After looking a little disconcerted by Margarito's awkward, yet effective
southpaw switching attack, Santo's was forced into a short brawl by
rounds end with his supporters erupting in cheers.
After controlling the first half of the sixth round, with the aggresive Margarito coming in to bang Santos against the ropes, both men clashed heads once more, leaving Margarito with a nearly identical bad cut (this time a little higher than in their previous meeting) over his right eyebrow, forcing the ref to call a halt in the action for the doctor to take a look at it.
As the fight resumed, a re-energised Santos came out strong aiming for the cut, with Margarito showing concern for yet another stoppage, fought back cautiously making it out of the round for a close even round.
Margarito's
cutman Francisco Espinoza did a marvelous job in between rounds by controlling
the blood flow getting his charge back into the fight.
With an air of urgency, Margarito took the fight to Santo's in the seven
and eight rounds (wiinning them), forcing the champion back as Santo's
looked to counter shot the challenger mostly innefectively.
The ninth round.
A weary looking Santos, was egged on in his corner with mixed signals
of both going forward and counterpunching Margarito, as the fight had
a feel of urgency that it might be stopped anytime as Margarito's cut
was bleeding again.
For the past few rounds, Margarito looked to be also concerned and had complianed to the ref several times of the constant holding by Santos which drew their heads dangerously close to his injury again.
The smaller framed, yet stronger and harder puncher in Margarito was sent out on a seek and destroy ninth round, forced to try and go for the knockout also, a series of slap shots and lateral movement gave the round to Santos.
After just but a few seconds into the 10th round, the ref once morecalled time out and hauled Margrito into a neutral corner at which time the ring doctor told the referee to call the fight off, sending the fight to the cards.
After a few minutes a local judge and american judge rendered their cards which read 85-86 a piece while the third judge, an American had it 87-84 giving the split decision win to Santos.
The win, clearly the biggest of Santos career set him at the 29-2-1, 20 KO's mark, while the decision broke Margarito's eight year undefeated run, now 30-4- 1, 21 KO's)
Many at ringside felt the fight should have been called in Margarito's favour with a one -two point edge, with a draw being the worst of it.
Many Puerto Rican locals, also called foul as they greeted the Mexican and told him that they felt he won, while posing for pictures and signing autographs on his way to the hotel and at the hotel.
Margarito was stitched up in his own hotel room, and although he showed good spirits, it is not known at this point if he will remain at 154, or go back down for a showdown vs Kermit Cintron, who holds the interim version of his WBO Welterweight belt.
On non-HBO televised undercard, the former WBO Mini straw weight, and KO artist Alex ''Nene'' Sanchez stopped Arturo Velasquez in the second round.
The welterweight Ruben Fuchu brawled and defeated a game Cristopher Henry wide swinging at the end of ten heated rounds.
2003 boxingladiators.com