?LA BATALLA? NEWS CONFERENCE
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 21 May 2008
Los Angeles, CA:- Today at the Olympic Ballroom of the upscale Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel at Century City south of Beverly Hills, Top Rank Promotions hosted the first of the many press conferences they scheduled to hype ?The Battle? (?La Batalla?), a meeting between two world class fighters, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
Cotto who hails from Puerto Rico holds the WBA Welterweight title, while Margarito of Mexico, the IBF Welterweight crown.
Cotto initially got his title in February 2006 via a 5th round RTD of Carlos Quintana. He defended it against Oktay Ukal in Puerto Rico ( TKO 11th) , Zab Judah in New York TKO 11th), Shane Mosley also in New York UD- 12rds), and Alfonso Gomez in April 2008 in New Jersey.(RTD 5th)
Margarito on the other hand earned his crown by defeating Kermit Cintron in New Jersey last April via a 6th rd KO. Previous to that, he was the WBO Welterweight champ but he lost the crown to Paul Williams via a 12 round UD at a fight held at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California in July of 2007.
?The Battle? will take place on Saturday, July 26, 2008 at the MGM Grand Casino Resort and Casino Events Center in Las Vegas. It will be a 12 round title fight and will be shown live on HBO PPV.
Bob Arum, the Top Rank head honcho indicated that the Cotto-Margarito fight will be ?one of the best fights in the history of the division?.
Cotto admitted that it will be a very tough fight but he is confident that at the end of the fight, his hands will be raised in victory.
Margarito for his part promised that Mexico will have a new champion.
So we shall see!
Top photo: Miguel Cotto (L) and Antonio Margarito pose after the Los Angeles presscon.
Cotto (L) and Margarito (R) pose with Top Rank president Bob Arum.
Photos by Mike Quidilla.
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