Antonio Margarito: From Tijuana to the Cotto Stoppage, the Hand Wrap Scandal and a Career Undone

Antonio Margarito held welterweight titles from three sanctioning bodies and handed Miguel Cotto the first defeat of his career. Six months later, inspectors in a Los Angeles dressing room found a hardened, plaster-like insert in his hand wraps. California took away his licence, and from that night his record has always been read with an asterisk beside it. Three losses and a badly damaged right eye made the reckoning worse.

Born in Torrance, Raised Across the Border in Tijuana

Margarito was born in Torrance, California, on March 18, 1978. His family moved to Tijuana when he was about two, so although he was American by birth he grew up in Mexico, in the border city that later claimed him as its own. He had only a short amateur career, which Wikipedia puts at 18 wins and 3 losses, before turning professional when most fighters are still in the junior ranks.

He was 15 when he had his first paid fight, against Jose Trujillo in Tijuana on January 14, 1994. He was tall for a welterweight, came forward without pause and threw punches in long, heavy volumes, and the style took years to bring results. By the end of the decade, though, the boy who had started out on Tijuana club cards was a ranked contender.

The WBO Belt and the Long Wait for a Big Night

His first world title came on March 16, 2002, when he stopped Antonio Díaz in the tenth round to win the vacant WBO welterweight championship. He held that belt until 2007. In those years he was known as one of the division's most dangerous fighters and one of its least rewarding opponents: a big, durable volume puncher who offered the sport's stars a hard night for modest pay.

In 2008 he took on Kermit Cintrón for the IBF title, and on April 12 of that year he knocked Cintrón out in the sixth round. That win set up the fight that made his name.

Las Vegas, July 2008: Wearing Down Miguel Cotto

On July 26, 2008, Margarito met the unbeaten Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for Cotto's WBA welterweight title. In the early rounds Cotto was quicker, landing sharp counters and moving well. According to the report by The Sweet Science, Margarito kept walking forward no matter what came back at him. Cotto's nose was bleeding by the second round. From the seventh round on, the pressure started to tell, and through the eighth, ninth and tenth Margarito kept landing on a face that was swelling badly.

In the eleventh, Cotto went to one knee after an uppercut and a flurry. He went down a second time, and his corner then signalled that it was over. The stoppage came at 2:05 of the round. Two judges had Margarito ahead 96-94 at that point, and the third had it level. Afterward Margarito put the result down to the heavier hands, saying he knew Cotto was the better boxer. Cotto was gracious: "This was Margarito's night," he told reporters, as quoted by The Sweet Science. It was Margarito's third welterweight title and Cotto's first professional loss.

January 2009: What the Inspectors Found Before the Mosley Fight

His first defence of the WBA belt was against Shane Mosley at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 24, 2009. His trainer, Javier Capetillo, wrapped his hands in the dressing room. Mosley's trainer, Naazim Richardson, asked to see the gauze knuckle pad that was about to go on Margarito's left hand. The California Court of Appeal's later ruling sets out what happened next. A California State Athletic Commission inspector found the pad dirty-looking and hard to the touch, with a white substance in it that resembled plaster. The pad was taken away.

The right hand had already been wrapped. Margarito objected that there was nothing in it, but the inspectors had it cut off and found a similar hardened pad inside. Both pads were confiscated, Capetillo made new ones that met the rules, and the fight went ahead. Mosley won it, stopping Margarito in the ninth round to take the title.

The Licence Revocation and a Court Challenge

On January 27, three days after the fight, the commission suspended Margarito and Capetillo on a temporary basis. The hearing took place on February 10, 2009, and the Associated Press reported that both men lost their licences for at least a year, which in effect barred Margarito from boxing in the United States. Wikipedia reports that Capetillo took the blame, calling the inserts a big mistake on his part. The commission put its revocation in a formal decision on March 31, 2009, and all seven commissioners voted for it.

Margarito challenged the decision in court and lost. On October 14, 2010, the California Court of Appeal upheld the revocation. It ruled that the commission could hold a boxer responsible for illegal wraps without proving he knew about them. Neither the hearing nor the court case settled the question that followed him for the rest of his career: whether the wraps he wore against Cotto had also been tampered with. No commission ever ruled on that fight.

Arlington, November 2010: A Beating From Manny Pacquiao

After his California ban, Margarito got a licence in Texas, and that made his biggest payday possible. On November 13, 2010, he fought Manny Pacquiao for the vacant WBC super welterweight title at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, in front of 41,734 people. Margarito was much the bigger man. Wikipedia lists his weight as 150 pounds against Pacquiao's 144.6, but Pacquiao's speed took the fight away from him. Sources give slightly different scorecards. Wikipedia lists 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110, and its main biography of Margarito gives the last card as 118-108. Every version has Pacquiao winning clearly.

Margarito's face showed how one-sided it had been. Pacquiao said afterward that he had asked the referee to look at the damage, and ESPN quoted his answer to the question of whether he had eased off: "Boxing is not for killing." Doctors found that Margarito had a fractured orbital bone, and he had surgery in Texas. ESPN quoted Margarito as saying he had never considered quitting. Wikipedia's article on the fight puts the fracture around the right eye, though its main biography of Margarito says left.

Madison Square Garden, 2011: Cotto's Revenge

The injury nearly kept Margarito out of the rematch. According to Wikipedia, he had developed a cataract in the right eye as well as the fracture. On October 31, 2011, the New York State Athletic Commission refused him a licence, citing the condition of his eye. After an appeal and further examinations by an eye specialist the commission chose, he was licensed on November 22.

The rematch took place on December 3, 2011, at Madison Square Garden. Cotto was now WBA super welterweight champion, and the crowd was a sellout of 17,943. Before the fight Cotto had made clear what he thought about 2008. This time he controlled it with his jab and his movement. Margarito's right eye began to swell after a left jab in the fourth round and kept getting worse. Before the tenth round the doctors stopped the fight. Sources disagree on how the result is recorded, as a stoppage in the ninth round or the tenth, but Cotto won and Margarito's eye was the reason.

Retirement, Comeback and the Record He Left

Margarito retired after the Cotto rematch. He came back in 2016 and won twice. His last fight was on September 2, 2017, against Carson Jones, which went to a technical decision after seven rounds. His record is listed as 41 wins and 8 losses.

He held the WBO, IBF and WBA titles at welterweight and gave Cotto his first defeat. He was also the fighter whose hands were inspected and found illegal on the night he was supposed to defend his biggest title. The licence revocation is a matter of record. Whether earlier results were affected by tampered wraps remains a matter of suspicion rather than any official finding.

Sources

• Antonio Margarito, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito II, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Margarito v. State Athletic Commission, California Court of Appeal (via FindLaw), October 14, 2010
• Margarito too relentless, takes down Cotto, The Sweet Science, July 2008
• Antonio Margarito to have surgery, ESPN, November 14, 2010
• Margarito's licence revoked (AP report), Honolulu Advertiser, February 10, 2009
• Margarito cleared for NY rematch against Cotto, Stabroek News, November 23, 2011