Miguel Cotto retired with a record of 41-6. He faced many great fighters, and fell short to a few, though there was one loss that never sat right with fans.
Miguel Cotto lost to Sadam Ali in his final fight in 2017.
He left behind a career full of thrilling moments, including opponents such as Canelo Alvarez, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Zab Judah and Shane Mosley.
There was, however, one fight Cotto just had to revisit.
Miguel Cotto schooled Antonio Margarito in post-scandal rematch
In 2008, an undefeated 32-0 Cotto faced 36-5 Antonio Margarito. Margarito won the fight by eleventh-round stoppage, though the scandal would not emerge until Margarito’s next fight.
Margarito faced Shane Mosley next, though was found ahead of the fight to have been tampering with his hand wraps. Margarito’s team had used inserts in the wraps that were said to have been similar to the kind of plaster used to make casts.
In 2009 it emerged that the red markings on the inserts Margarito was caught using bore a striking similarity to those he wore ahead of the Cotto fight.
As a result it is widely believed Margarito had loaded wraps for that fight too, making his win over Cotto a highly controversial one.
No stranger to controversy, Margarito also mocked Freddie Roach’s Parkinson’s disease, something Manny Pacquiao, Roach’s fighter, punished him for in their fight.
In 2011, three years after his loss to Margarito, Cotto sought to settle the score, and fairly.
Cotto, who KO’d Daniel Geale, gave even more credence to the suspicion that Margarito had cheated in their first fight, as the Mexican was unable to replicate his performance, and was on the receiving end of a stoppage this time, when he was left unable to continue after the ninth.
Miguel Cotto lost to foe who is now a bare-knuckle champion
One fight after his win over Margarito, Cotto lost a unanimous decision to Mayweather.
In his comeback fight from the loss, Cotto was matched against 25-0 Austin Trout.
Trout defeated Cotto by unanimous decision. He fought for 11 years after the win, facing the likes of Canelo, Jermell and Jermall Charlo, and Erislandy Lara.
He has since quit boxing, and Trout is now BKFC’s bare-knuckle boxing champion, with a 4-0 record in the sport.