Why did Antonio Margarito Vacant his IBF Welter weight title???

Question

Why did margarito vacant his ibf title?

If i was him i would have kept that title then when he fights cotto it would be for the WBA and IBF

so 1 of them would end up Unifed welter weight champ.

Also who do you think will win the margarito vs cotto fight

later this month?

Answer 1

Antonio did it for the Cotto Fight,  cash money in the bank, a shot at one of the best fighters an for a big payday. Plus if Antonio wins he can get another big time rematch for a bigger payday with cotto or Floyd Mayweather(he cant say gone forever)

Coto Margarito is gonna be a great fight but i think Cotto wins  but its gonna be close and entertaining.

Answer 2

I think Cotto will taste his first defeat this month fighting against margarito.  Margarito should fight smart using his reach and height advantages.

Answer 3

Because he wanted to fight Miguel Cotto (Theres more money and exposure in this fight) and if he didnt vacate his title he would of had to fight a madatory fight vs the number 1 contender for the IBF title which was Joshua Clottey. Joshua Clottey is now fight Zab judah for the title and Margarito also has already beat Clottey in the past.

Answer 4

Antonio Margarito had an IBF mandatory defense due against the IBF's number one contender Joshua Clottey.  He chose to pursue the big-money fight with Miguel Cotto instead of facing his mandatory defense.  Cotto has the WBA title anyway, so he is still going to be fighting for a world title, he just won't have his IBF one.  A similar thing happened when he had the WBO title- his mandatory was Paul Williams, but he was going to vacate that tite in order to face Cotto instead for a big-money matchup.  Margarito didn't want to be stripped of his title, so he fought Williams and he lost (his plan backfired).  It took until now for the Cotto fight to materialize again and he doesn't want to once again risk it by fighting a dangerous mandatory like Clottey (who he already beat in a close fight in 2006).  Clottey will now fight for vacant title against Zab Judah this August.

As far as who I think will win the matchup- its a genuine tossup and I wouldn't be surprised to see either man pull out the victory.  I slightly lean towards Cotto using his improved boxing skills to outpoint Margarito in a tough and grueling fight.  However, I could just as well see Tony walking through Cotto and getting to him with his tremendous pressure style and stopping him late.  If the fight is mainly fought on the outside, then I say Cotto wins a close decision using his better boxing skills; if the fight is mainly fought on the inside, then I say Margarito stops Cotto late.  I'm banking that Cotto knows that he can't stay on the inside with Tony because Margarito is the bigger and stronger fighter, which is why I think that Cotto will resort to the only thing that he can do to win this fight- box more than he brawls.  But if he gets too drawn in to fighting Tony's fight, then its a whole different ball game.  I predict a Cotto decision in a great fight, but I'm not solid on that prediction and I could certainly see it going the other way.

Edit: Blogbaba- Margarito didn't duck Clottey; he already fought him and won.  Whether it was due to the hand injury or not, he still beat Clottey.  And yes, people do give away championship titles- Marco Antonio Barrera chose to vacate his IBF title because he had a bogus mandatory that simply wasn't worth it to him.  Many other fighters have also given up belts when there was a bogus mandatory defense due (even George Foreman vacated his heavyweight titles after he won them from Michael Moorer).  The sactioning bodies have been sucking the life out of the sport and the fans and fighters realize that- Margarito realizes that he'll still be a world titleholder if he beats Cotto, so who cares if he doesn't have his IBF title?  Championship linearity is what counts these days, thats why most fans follow the Ring Magazine champs because they signify who is the linear and true champion in each division.  The winner of Cotto-Margarito along with Paul Williams will be seen as the 2 best welterweights in the world and no sanctioning body is going to change that.  There was no way that he could have kept the belt because the IBF doesn't care about preserving a fight with Cotto first, and they wouldn't have negotiated one bit.  Margarito took the fight with Cotto because it is a bigger fight and it is arguably more dangerous than a Clottey fight.  Everyone keeps saying that he's ducking Clottey, but Cotto is ranked higher (number 1 welterweight in the world currently), has a title belt, has more knockouts, and has looked WAY more impressive than Clottey has throughout his whole career.  Think about it- if Margarito was really "ducking" as many have said, then he wouldn't be fighting Cotto this month.  And this fight has to be made NOW and NOT later becuase if Tony doesn't take a Cotto fight, then someone else gladly will.  The fact of the matter is that he is arguably taking a bigger risk fighting Miguel than he is fighting Clottey (again after he already beat him).  And I'm not even a Margarito fan; I think Cotto will win their upcoming match, but I'm just telling it like it is.

Answer 5

Margarito ducked Clottey, much the same way Bowe ducked Lewis, nobody just gives away a championship title, and measures could have been taken to preserve the Clottey fight and the title for another time frame had Margarito been interesting in doing so.  Granted the Cotto fight is huge, but it is not the reason Margarito dumped the IBF belt.  Clottey is the reason, Margarito didn't want the fight so to avoid it, he dumped the belt.

I think Cotto will take Margarito to school, talk of Cotto losing is just that, talk.  At 147 Cotto is about as good as it gets, and he has enough skill to out box the taller Margarito.  Miguel learned from early mistakes and will not expose his questionable chin to Margarito, so I have to go against the Margarito crowd and side with Cotto in this one.

Answer 6

Personally, I would have took the Clottey fight and then the Cotto fight so I could unify the belts...unless I was scared to fight Clottey. Cotto's going to be here, why is he in such a rush? Yeah, I'm sure he wanted to take the big money fight, because if he fought his mandatory Clottey before his fight with Cotto and lost, then a Margarito/Cotto match wouldn't look so attractive. His career would be over and he would have become the poor man's De la Hoya, overhyped....but always losing.