Antonio Margarito reveals reasons behind his retirement – Boxing News
Former WBO welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito has revealed his reasons for early retirement. According to the ‘El Tornado de Tijuana’, his eye had become prone to injury and so he decided to hang up his gloves instead of losing fights due to his eye.
Margarito’s last fight was his controversial rematch against Miguel Cotto, which he lost. Following his loss to Cotto, the Mexican-American fighter decided to hang up his gloves. Even though most boxing fans believed Margarito’s decision was based on emotions,
as the Cotto match loss made him appear guilty of using illegal substance in the fight as Cotto had alleged, Margarito stated a completely different reason.
“I always said Cotto didn't have a punch. I sincerely didn't feel his punch [even though] he hit me,” said Margarito during a recent appearance on ‘The Boxing Lab’.
“I think the fight with Cotto shouldn't have been stopped. I think my eye was much more swollen against Pacquiao. It was three times more swollen for that fight. … But because of that I thought in any fight, not just against Cotto, the same thing is going
to happen when my eye gets inflamed. I thought it could get worse for me. I started thinking retirement because I thought the same thing will happen in every fight and that's what I didn't want.”
Margarito’s eye was damaged in the fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2010. Since then, his eye became a major hurdle in his fights, swelling up every time it was hit. Margarito insists his eye was the only reason as to why he retired, and nothing else.
Margarito even went on saying that he could have won the fight against Cotto only if his eye would not have been injured. He insists that it was his corner’s decision to end the showdown, even though he wanted to carry on.
Margarito is just 34 and he has retired from the sport. He has been a controversial sportsman throughout his career. During his first fight against Cotto, the latter alleged him of using cemented pads under his gloves. Later on, in another match, Margarito
was caught with illegal substance under his gloves proving him guilty.
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