Miguel Cotto still going strong despite the night when plaster of Paris left him in pieces - Steve Bunce

Margarito stopped grinning, his smile replaced by a look of hate as the commissioners cut off his tainted wraps

(Getty Images)

Nobody noticed the yellow stains on the shrouded knuckles of the bandages that Antonio Margarito flexed, making a fist before he put on the gloves and ruined Miguel Cotto at the MGM in Las Vegas.

Nobody had an answer when Margarito’s filthy fists sliced, cut and bruised the bloated face of Cotto and led to an uncomfortable stoppage in round 11. Cotto lost for the first time in 33 fights and he left the ring that summer’s night in 2008 a broken man.

Thankfully, somebody did care when, six months later, a grinning Margarito was about to slide his bandaged hands into another pair of gloves for another fight against another victim. On that night a man called Nazim Richardson did notice the yellow stains and demanded a much closer look. Margarito stopped grinning, his smile replaced by a look of hate as the local commissioners cut off his tainted wraps.

The bandages were removed, sent for examination at a laboratory and the yellow substance was plaster of Paris: Margarito had planned to use his fists of concrete against a boxer called Shane Mosley that night. In the aftermath a photo emerged, taken of the bandages he wore against Cotto, and there was the same tell-tale, disgusting yellow staining. He was a cheat capable of dealing death and his licence to fight in America was revoked.


 Antonio Margarito (right) throws a punch at Miguel Cotto
 (Getty Images)

Incidentally, the night that Richardson foiled the vile antics of Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, a new, clean set of bandages were applied and Margarito – without his illegal, lethal fists – took a shocking beating from Mosley.

Both Margarito and Capetillo served a one-year ban in the United States, but there were constant threats of fights in Mexico. “Antonio has to make a living and he has the right to fight any place that will licence him,” said Bob Arum. “I am his promoter, and I will do the best that I can for him.” Arum also promoted Cotto.

Margarito, you see, had become big business in boxing the night he beat Cotto and he argued that he had done it without the use of plaster of Paris in the ring at the MGM. It was Capetillo who was blamed and sacked, and Margarito was back a year later. Cotto, meanwhile, returned looking a little less confident and continued winning until the inevitable happened and Arum made the rematch.

The morality-free zone, which often circles the boxing business, was the glorious backdrop the night at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2011 when Cotto went in search of revenge against Margarito. The Mexican’s gradual transformation from sinner back to contender had been helped when he was dizzily punched for 12 rounds in a massacre by Manny Pacquiao. He had looked like a washed-up bruiser with his sad eyes and battered face.

The rematch had been scheduled for the summer of 2009, but Richardson’s sleuthing and Mosley’s power had delayed the fight for two years. When the two met on that emotional night at the Garden, a venue adored by Cotto’s Puerto Rican fans, there was savage revenge and it was the turn of Margarito to stagger, dazed, blinded and shamed, all over the ring; the referee and the Mexican’s corner all seemed to be in on the redemption ride and hardly lifted a finger to save Margarito from the fists of Cotto. It was not pretty, but it was sweet, sweet justice boxing-style.

Margarito has not fought since that awful night in 2011 but is now considering a comeback. Cotto fights on, a more careful boxer than the youthful brawler, and this Saturday, back in Las Vegas, his remarkable career continues when he defends his WBC middleweight title against Saul Alvarez, the ginger-haired Mexican who turned professional at the age of 15. Cotto is the last of his generation’s great fighters to still be relevant.

He has not missed one single quality fighter during his 15 years as a boxer at any of the weights where he has won his titles. Now 35, he has been favourite, underdog, forgotten, bruised, knocked down and quite brilliant in a long decade of world title fights. The Margarito fights are simply pit stops during his old-fashion pursuit of glory inside the ropes.

Over 20 of Cotto’s fights have been exceptional and this Saturday’s meeting with Alvarez can be added to the list before a punch has been thrown; Alvarez has lost just once in 47 fights, he is 10 years younger and he is slowly becoming the Cotto of his own generation.

Alvarez, by the way, had fought 21 times as a baby professional before his 18th birthday and even the great Cotto, who was a teenage Olympian, could not quite manage that. Their fight is a rare and genuine clash of boxing epochs and should be celebrated.