Cotto beats Mosley to retain title

WBA Welterweight champion Miguel Cotto retained his title and his unbeaten record at Madison Square Garden as he held off a spirited challenge from four-time former world champion Sugar Shane Mosley on Saturday night.

Cotto, 27, scored an unanimous victory over the American, whose record slipped to 44-5 (37KOs).

Mosley, 36, was never dominated by the Puerto Rican, who went into the fight with a 30-0 (25 KOs) record, but the champion did enough in a battle that never quite reached epic proportions of his previous defence against Zab Judah but was an exciting spectacle.

The contrasting styles of the two boxers showed immediately as Mosley displayed his quick hands while Cotto stalked his man, picking his moments to land telling power punches in a cagey opener.

The fight really came alive at the end of the second round when Mosley caught the champion with clubbing right, provoking an immediate response from Cotto as the rivals traded fast and furious blows over the final 30 seconds.

Mosley’s right again did damage midway through the third with two hooks to Cotto’s head before giving him a taste of his own medicine with a big right to the body, punches that momentarily subdued the large Puerto Rican contingent in a Garden crowd of 15,251.

The round closed with another furious exchange, Mosley unloading with combinations as Cotto countered with sharp, straight rights.

And so it continued, Mosley finding Cotto’s chin with a right upper cut in the fourth only to get a left hook to his cheek in exchange, with neither fighter able to truly dominate the other but Cotto just shading the contest.

The sixth round, though, belonged to Cotto as he repeatedly landed shots on Mosley’s head and chin without any significant response.

Mosley rallied in the seventh with a big right hook that knocked Cotto’s head back and his own fans found their voices in the ninth as their man took the fight to the champion, rocking Cotto back onto the ropes in the dying seconds before landing a left hook to the head to take the round.

Mosley stormed out of his corner at the start of the 10th and again had Cotto in trouble on the ropes. The rivals continued to trade punches, Mosley breaching the champion’s defences with a right upper cut and Cotto landing a straight left on the challenger’s nose, rocking Mosley’s head back.

The 11th was just as relentless, Mosley working the body before Cotto broke out in the final 10 seconds to hurt his man at the bell.

The final round still gave both fighters everything to box for with Cotto’s fans erroneously cheering as Mosley went down in the champion’s corner but only with a slip.

Mosley again took the fight to Cotto and opened a cut on the corner of the Puerto Rican’s right eye although it appeared to be from a clash of heads.

Mexico’s Antonio Margarito needed just 2:38 of the first round to claim the vacant WBO Intercontinental Welterweight belt against Texas fighter Golden Johnson in the main support.

Johnson was overwhelmed from the opening bell, with Margarito flooring him in the first minute. Johnson beat the count but referee Wayne Kelly had no option but to call it off when another Margarito barrage dropped the Texan again with just 22 seconds of the opener remaining.

Miami-based Cuban Joel Casamayor got off the canvas to defend his Ring Magazine and WBC Interim Lightweight titles against California’s Jose Armando Santa-Cruz but needed a split decision from the judges.

Casamayor, 36 and fighting for the first time in 13 months since beating Diego Corrales on a split decision, was knocked down in the first minute of the opening round and never looked like he had done enough to unsettle Santa-Cruz, nine years his junior.

With his victory, Casamayor moved to 35-3-1 while Santa-Cruz slipped to 25-3.

In a junior welterweight contest, former WBA Super Lightweight champion Carlos Maussa of Colombia, beaten earlier in his career by both Cotto and Ricky Hatton, slipped to 20-5 after he was knocked out just 1:47 into the first round by California’s 20-year-old rising star Victor Ortiz, the 15th knockout in a record that moved to 20-1-1 with the victory.