Nevada amends rules to lure Cotto-Margarito fight
The Nevada Athletic Commission has amended a rule that would allow Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito’s July 26 bout to take place in Las Vegas.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission on Thursday amended its rule for glove size, putting Las Vegas into the hunt to land the much-anticipated July 26 bout between welterweight titleholder Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
Cotto and Margarito have always fought in 8-ounce gloves and prefer to continue fighting in them. But under a provisional rule that has been used for the past couple of years in Nevada, boxers who weighed more than the 135-pound lightweight limit had to wear 10-ounce gloves.
In virtually every other jurisdiction in the world, fighters wear 8-ounce gloves up to the 147-pound welterweight class with 10-ounce gloves being worn in fights over 147 pounds.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who promotes Puerto Rico’s Cotto and Mexico’s Margarito, wanted the fight to take place in 8-ounce gloves, as did the fighters, and pursued a meeting with the Nevada commission to talk it over.
Without the change, Arum said he would not consider Las Vegas for the fight. He has been talking to New York’s Madison Square Garden and Atlantic City, N.J., about hosting the HBO PPV fight.
So let me get this straight, the fight date has been set, and the fighters but not a venue? I guess Bob Arum knows what he’s doing, he’s shopping the fight around to make sure he gets as much money as he can.
This should turn out as a great decision for the NAC in order to get this marquee match up in their state. Las Vegas is always the best place for big time fights.
