If Cotto-Margarito happens, will it be a unification bout?

Question

Because i heard Margarito will have to vacate the belt to fight Cotto because The IBF champ(Margarito) has a mandatory against Joshua Clottey.

Answer 1

If Cotto/Margarito happens, it will be the true welterweight championship of the world, the sanctioning bodies hype is irrelevant.  The alphabet soup politics of multiple belts are a disgrace and a farce, true boxing fans know a real Champion beats the best in his weight class and ducks no one.  Jim Lampley clearly stated the difference between a "titlist" and a "champion", and for once I have to agree with Jim.  The tin a corrupt orgainzation hangs around your waist doesn't make you a champion, beating the best out there in your weight class does.

Margarito and Cotto are the best out there, the winner is the true welterweight champion.   At 140 Floyd Mayweather was boxing's P4P best.  At 147 Floyd is at present over matched and clearly didn't bring his dominance of the lower weights up seven more pounds.  An aging DeLa Hoya and a over weight Hatton are nothing to brag about with guys like Clotty, Quintana, Williams, Cotto or Margarito at welterweight, Floyd in my eyes has yet to fight an elite welter weight.

Cotto/Margarito will be bigger than any title unification bout, it will be a real "championship" for once, that eclipses all the sanctioning bodies.

Answer 2

It wont be for unification but, if Margarito wins which I think he would in that fight...he may the most feared welter out there.  A while back pbf or money whatever he wants to be called turned down a fight with margarito for a reported 7-8 milliion.

h**l if I was mayweather I would stay away from tony margarito too, pbf's closest fight was a somewhat controversial fight with JL castillo...i think that floyd sees a lot of castillo in margarito with one major difference...tony will throw 100+ punches a rond with prolly 85% of them being power shots.

Answer 3

NO, it would not.  You are correct about Margo having to vacate the belt.  What it would do, however, is set the stage for a fight with Mayweather fighting the winner, the loser fighting Clottey.  The winners will then fight each other and that SHOULD give boxing fans an idea who the best at 147 is.

The 2 scenarios I see are like this:

Margo/Cotto - Cotto wins by TKO

Cotto/May - Cotto upsets May late round stoppage

Margo/ Clottey - Margo by 4th rd TKO

Rematch between Margo/Cotto for all the belts

or

May/Clottey - May 7th rd TKO

Margo/Cotto - Cotto

Cotto/May - Cotto with Cotto wearing 3 belts after the fight

The second scenario is unlikely because Mayweather is lining up big paydays against fighters who are no longer relevant in the division.  

BTW, what kind of elitist BS is it to talk about 'true' boxing fans?  What is a true boxing fan?  As long as the person can watch a fight enjoy it and form an opinion, that is true enough for me.  As for the belts and the organizations that hand them out- have we not seen in the last 18 months that fans are getting fights they want to see, and promoters are becoming less concerned about sanctioning bodies and more concerend about staging good fights?

Answer 4

it won't be a unification bout, but in the eyes of many boxing afecionados this fight will determine the true champion.

Answer 5

that is a good question. It certainly should be since they are both title holders. It might not be and that would be a shame. It is tactics like avoiding having two world class fighter fight for a single title and also letting the bout end in a draw are two examples of things hurting the credibility of boxing as a professional sport.

Answer 6

It most likely would not be a unification because Joshua Clottey has been the IBF's mandatory since December of last year when he beat Shamone Alvarez and I don't think that they would give Margarito an extension.  Even though it won't be a unification, it won't matter because it will take nothing away from the fight and most people don't really care about the alphabet soup belts anymore- its the fighter that makes the belt and not the other way around.  Clottey will most likely end up fighting for a vacant belt because the last time Margarito tried to keep his belt instead of take a big money fight against Cotto, he lost it to Paul Williams, and the last time Margarito fought Clottey, he almost lost.  I don't think that Margarito will make the same mistake again by fighting a dangerous mandatory instead of a big money fight with Cotto.  In any case, the winner of Cotto-Margarito will still be a titleholder and they will be seen as the biggest threat and true number one contender to the true welterweight champion- Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Edit: I'll say it once again, Floyd IS the true welterweight champion of the world.  Before Carlos Baldomir beat Zab Judah, who was considered the champ by EVERYBODY?  Zab Judah was the champ and he lost to Baldomir.  Baldomir then lost to Mayweather, and Floyd has not yet lost, so he is still the true champ regardless of the guys he is facing.  I want to see him face Cotto as well, but that doesn't mean that he is not the champion.  Sonny Liston was ducked for the longest time before getting his shot at Floyd Patterson, and until he actually beat Patterson, he wasn't considered the true champ.  If Floyd retires, then he will no longer be champ, but until he loses, permanently moves to another division, or retires, he is still the champ and the rest are just titleholders.  Jim Lampley agreed with this statement when Cotto fought Shane Mosley.