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"Friday Night Fights" analyst Bernardo Osuna has the latest on Miguel Cotto's possible next opponent (hint: Could be another classic Puerto Rico-versus-Mexico throwdown), where Amir Khan goes from here and Marcos Maidana's next move.

LAS VEGAS -- Five things we learned from Saturday's Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto card at the MGM Grand:

1. There's good, there's very good, and there's great

With every fight, Mayweather is moving up the all-time list. For years, one knock on his record was that, as good as he frequently looked, we didn't know how he would react when he was rocked or when he was in a real dogfight. We know now. When Shane Mosley hurt him badly in the second round of their fight two years ago, Mayweather turned it around and dominated every minute of every subsequent round. When Cotto dragged him into the trenches Saturday night, Mayweather engaged him, firing off the ropes; and when it looked like the effectiveness of that technique was waning after Cotto's blistering eighth round, Floyd changed strategies completely and sailed away with the final third of the bout.

There are plenty of reasons that those fans who don't like Mayweather will find to support their position. But his skills and ability shouldn't be among them. We are watching a genuinely great boxer in his pomp. Whatever our feelings of him as a person, we should allow ourselves to enjoy and marvel at his talent.

2. Seriously, enough's enough. It's time

For all the talk of "that" fight, for all the yapping from both sides, the prospect of Floyd Mayweather fighting Manny Pacquiao has, in the buildup to Saturday's contest, rarely if ever seemed more remote. But now, more than ever, it has to happen. Cotto was the best of the rest and he has been summarily dispatched. Outside of, say, Sergio Martinez or perhaps, in the case of Pacquiao, a fourth meeting with Juan Manuel Marquez, there's nobody left. Assuming Pacquiao makes it past Timothy Bradley Jr. on June 9, Mayweather-Pacquiao has to be next. Even as he poured cold water on the prospect of the fight ever happening, Mayweather admitted that "there's really nobody else out there for me."

3. Miguel Cotto was sold short

Even among those who gave Cotto credit for his skill and experience, who offered the caveat that against almost any other likely opponent, he would be favored, the Puerto Rican star was given next to no chance. One person who didn't sell him short, at least publicly, was Mayweather, and as he stood at the postfight news conference with his face uncharacteristically marked up, it was clear why. Cotto fought with enough intelligence and persistence that, through eight rounds, the outcome of a Mayweather fight was genuinely in doubt. He fought an almost perfect game plan; it's just that on this night, against this man, it wasn't enough.

4. Canelo Alvarez is a work in progress

There was much to be impressed with in Alvarez's victory over Mosley: He was unruffled, he was steady, he didn't panic when an accidental head-butt opened up a cut over his left eye. He planted his feet and threw compact punches with plenty of torque that thudded off Mosley's head with real impact. At the same time, there are still some areas for improvement, as is to be expected from such a young fighter. Alvarez could stand to be more active, to throw more punches, to start earlier. When he threw combinations, they were beautifully effective; he just didn't throw them enough. A case could be made that, after almost folding Mosley in half with body shots in the ninth, Alvarez should have taken it up a notch and tried to finish him. But for all the doubts and incomplete grades, this fight also highlighted the talent that is there, and the reception from the crowd underlined the stardom that assuredly awaits Alvarez as long as the wins keep coming.

5. The ride is over for Shane Mosley

Whatever doubts had been raised about Mosley's commitment to battle after the disappointing performances against Pacquiao and Mayweather, the 40-year-old erased them with his determined effort to stand and trade with the younger, stronger Alvarez. But while he was not afraid to pull the trigger, Mosley's punches lacked the speed and snap that were his trademark when he was at his peak. He looked at times almost as if he were punching through treacle. It is often said that the last thing a fighter loses is his punch, but Mosley had nothing in his arsenal with which to deter his younger foe. As Mosley admitted, when the young kids start beating you, maybe it's time to turn to promoting. Mosley has had a terrific career. It's time for that career to end on the relative high note of making a defiant last stand.

LAS VEGAS -- A single night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on June 26, 2008, nearly ruined the boxing career of Miguel Cotto.

Nearly four years later, he proved to everyone it didn't take the best of him.

Cotto has rarely looked the same since suffering the worst loss of his career at the (perhaps loaded) hands of Antonio Margarito in that welterweight title bout, the first meeting between the fighters.

Cotto, 31, holds a strong belief that Margarito used illegal hand wraps during that fight, and he finally exacted his revenge late last year in the form of a stoppage win in the 10th round of their rematch. He then swore he would perform better after having closed the emotional chapter on Margarito.

Few believed him. Heading into Saturday's light middleweight fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Cotto was listed as more than a 4-to-1 underdog and was generally given no shot against his faster, more technical opponent.

Eventually, Cotto did succumb to Mayweather's speed and defensive skills. The result was familiar, with Mayweather claiming a decision win via fairly lopsided scores.

Those who witnessed the fight, however, saw the details not recorded in the scores. Cotto pushed Mayweather, more so than perhaps any of the 42 who came before him. He cut off the ring and bloodied Mayweather's nose with punches in the sixth.

He appeared the strongest, mentally, that he has since the Margarito loss. Although he still faded a bit late, as he has been known to do, that was more attributed to Mayweather's resiliency than any break in Cotto.

"I'm happy with my fight and with my performance," Cotto said. "So is my family. I can't ask for anything else."

The Las Vegas crowd went wild after the eighth round, when Cotto forced a few exchanges out of Mayweather in the corner of the ring.

The greatest surprise, though, occurred in the moments when Cotto had success in the middle of the ring. He was still at a disadvantage in that type of fight against the quicker, more mobile Mayweather, but he wasn't thoroughly dominated, as many would have expected him to be.

Defensively, Cotto seems to be improving under head trainer Pedro Diaz. He refused to be dictated by Mayweather's jab and effectively controlled the range at which the fight took place throughout.

"Cotto shocked me," Mayweather said. "He was slow, but he was awkward. Anybody who goes in with Cotto, you better be ready. His record reflects where he's at, and he deserved to fight me."

In a way, Cotto's record does reflect where he's at -- and then it doesn't.

A 5-3 showing over the course of his past eight bouts isn't typically the result associated with a boxing superstar. Cotto was beaten badly by Manny Pacquiao over the course of 12 rounds in 2009, and his latest wins have come against inferior competition.

Saturday, however, might be the best reflection of where Cotto truly is: a fighter still improving, finally over the heartache of the worst loss of his career and still capable of competing at the highest level.

Saturday's challenge of junior middleweight champ Miguel Cotto will be Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s sixth successive fight at the MGM Grand and his ninth overall. Here's one man's take on Mayweather's five most memorable appearances at what has become boxing's marquee venue:

5. Sept. 17, 2011: Victor Ortiz

Ortiz was at a high point, coming off his dramatic win over Andre Berto, but he was no match for either Mayweather or his own lack of judgment. Frustrated by his inability to pierce Mayweather's defense, Ortiz launched his head into his opponent's in Round 4, prompting referee Joe Cortez to call time out and deduct a point. When Cortez called time in, Ortiz was focused more on hugging Mayweather to apologize than on defending himself; Mayweather clocked an unprepared Ortiz with a left and a right, putting him down for the count.

4. April 20, 2002: Jose Luis Castillo

Notable for being a fight that, in the eyes of many observers, Mayweather lost. Mexico's Castillo was able to pressure Mayweather for periods and take him out of his comfort zone, but the American won a unanimous decision on the judges' scorecards, and he did so again in the rematch across the street at Mandalay Bay.

3. Dec. 8, 2007: Ricky Hatton

Unforgettable. An estimated 30,000 Brits descended on the Strip, all but emptying the MGM of beer and constantly reminding everyone that there was "only onnnne Ricky Hatton." That one Ricky Hatton was likely seeing two Floyd Mayweathers after walking into a check hook that sent him face-first into the ring post in the 10th. And still the Brits kept singing ...

2. May 5, 2007: Oscar De La Hoya

Was this really five years ago already? Overdramatically dubbed "The Fight to Save Boxing," this was the event that turned Mayweather into a superstar. Overcoming early resistance from a stiff Golden Boy jab, Mayweather scored a split decision win in a contest that secured a record 2.4 million pay-per-view buys.

1. Jan. 20, 2001: Diego Corrales

Like Mayweather, Corrales was an undefeated 130-pound titlist, and there were plenty of prognosticators who expected him to prove too strong. But you can't hurt what you can't hit, and in what remains Mayweather's most sublime performance, Corrales could hardly lay a glove on his rival. Mayweather, by contrast, couldn't miss his, dropping Corrales five times before Chico's corner stopped the contest in the 10th.

When Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr. face off in the ring at the MGM Grand on Saturday night, it will be several years after a meeting between the two men was first mooted. According to Cotto, however, one person who wasn't entertaining the possibility when it was initially suggested, when both men were campaigning in and around the junior welterweight division, was Cotto himself.

"When I was at 140 pounds, I was an immature boxer, you know," he told reporters after the final prefight press conference on Wednesday. "I didn't think about him, because he was a great champion, he was a guy who was above me on all levels. But now we are in the same boat."

Asked what he will do to counter Mayweather's perceived advantages of speed and skill, Cotto offered no specifics, but merely the calm understated confidence that has long been his trademark.

"If nobody [has] found the way to beat Floyd Mayweather [so far], you're going to see how a person can beat Floyd Mayweather on Saturday," he said.

Mayweather, for his part, smiled at suggestions from journalists that perhaps Cotto might deploy his vaunted body attack or look to make their contest a brawl, and hinted at vulnerabilities in the Puerto Rican's defense.

"Even though Antonio Margarito got in trouble for loaded gloves, you've got to say to yourself: He's not that fast, so why was he even getting hit with those shots?" he asked rhetorically of Cotto's first professional defeat, which came in July 2008 in subsequently controversial circumstances. "I think I get to the target quicker because I throw straighter than some other fighters."

By and large, though, Mayweather remained, as he has been throughout the promotion, respectful toward his opponent.

"Miguel is a true warrior, a tough champion, and to go down in the Hall of Fame as one of the best, you have to face the true champions out there," Mayweather said.

Said Cotto: "He's been a gentleman the whole way with me. I've been a gentleman with him. That's the way it should be. You get paid to fight in the ring, not outside the ring."

LAS VEGAS -- It wasn't the first time a crowd had gathered in the MGM Grand to welcome Floyd Mayweather Jr. during fight week, and it likely won't be the last.

Tuesday's throng wasn't nearly as large a gathering as the one that greeted him and Ricky Hatton almost five years ago, but the uniquely Mancunian tsunami that swept over Las Vegas that week defies comparison. Still, there was a sizable British contingent awaiting Mayweather this time, too, and when he looked out from the stage, he sensed their presence instantly, shouting out to them and leading them in a brief rendition of their version of "Winter Wonderland" -- with some slight adjustments, of course. ("There's only one May-weather," he began, and the fans seemed more than happy to play along.)

Saturday's card is dubbed "Ring Kings," and so, one by one, the main protagonists -- Shane Mosley and Saul Canelo Alvarez, who tangle in the co-main event, and Mayweather's opponent, Miguel Cotto -- took their turns upon arriving to sit atop a throne on a dais in the MGM Grand lobby. There, they answered questions from cruiserweight B.J. Flores, who was hosting a live stream of proceedings and who showed the poise and timing of a media veteran, before addressing some TV cameras and disappearing to sit with a phalanx of writers.

Mayweather was last to arrive, 45 minutes after the advertised time, and he took almost that long to make his way through the crowd, signing every autograph he could and soaking up the adoration. Instead of sitting on the stage, he commandeered it, a master showman in his element. And when it was his turn to talk to the TV crews, he wasn't hurried or anxious to move along. He knew full well that this was his show, that it was all about him and that it would move at whatever speed he wanted it to. I took up position behind ESPN's Bernardo Osuna, relaxed and confident that I would get my time to ask all the questions I wanted.

I hadn't counted on the fact that Mayweather might generously be described as having a low boredom threshold. Once Bernardo had finished, I moved into position, but Mayweather had gone, taking off across the stage to immerse himself once more in the adoring throng.

We watched his route through the crowd -- a task made considerably easier by the enormous specimens of humanity who were the bodyguards walking immediately behind him -- hopped down from the stage into his path, smiled and caught his attention. One never knows which Floyd will emerge in an interview: Will he be angry and petulant, happy and charming, thoughtful and expansive? Today, he was feeling too much love to be the former. Instead, he could be found a short distance from Column B and far off from Column C, not necessarily answering the questions he was asked, but holding forth in the way he wanted, the way that would best sell the pay-per-view.

He smiled his big smile into the camera and disappeared again into the crowd, his location easily determined by the wave of sound that greeted him from each new knot of fans, until the lobby fell quiet, and he was gone.

The best way to celebrate a highly satisfying weekend of boxing action? How about a week's worth of killer coverage ahead of Saturday's Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto junior middleweight title bout in Las Vegas?

To kick things off, "Friday Night Fights" previews Mayweather-Cotto in the clip above.

We know that Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. won't be fighting each other in the first half of 2012. And we know who Mayweather will be fighting instead on May 5: Miguel Cotto.

So that leaves one part of the spring-season super-duper-star equation left to be revealed, and that's PacMan's June 9 opponent.

Initially, the list of options included four names: Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley Jr. and Lamont Peterson. Then Mayweather's name was added. Then it was scratched out. Then Cotto crossed himself off.

That leaves three. All indications coming out of every corner of the boxing world suggest that it will be officially announced next week that Bradley will get the assignment.

Nothing against Bradley, an excellent fighter by any measure, but it's time to say what not enough people seem to be saying: This fight should have gone to Marquez. In every conceivable way, he's a better opponent for Pacquiao than Bradley. In fact, as he's proven repeatedly, he's a better opponent for Pacquiao than anyone not named Floyd Mayweather.

In terms of entertainment value, every Pacquiao-Marquez bout is a fight of the year candidate. Every Bradley bout is a technical draw candidate.

From a business perspective, Marquez is the fourth-most bankable name in boxing (behind Pacquiao, Mayweather and Cotto) and his third fight with Pacquiao last November generated an estimated 1.4 million pay-per-view buys. Bradley doesn't have a fan base, meaning a Pac-Bradley pay-per-view will draw however many buys the Filipino legend can draw with just his name and face on the poster.

With regard to who deserves the fight more, the majority of fans believe Marquez deserved the victory over Pacquiao last time out -- in a fight nearly everyone expected PacMan to win by knockout, by the way. Bradley is the top-rated junior welterweight in the world, but his lone fight in the past 12 months, against a used-up Joel Casamayor, hardly qualifies him for a shot at the people's champ.

Looking at what's best for the fans, for fairness and for the folks counting the receipts, it's Marquez over Bradley all day long. So why was Marquez never given serious consideration for a fourth fight with Pacquiao in June? Why was Cotto the frontrunner initially, and why is it Bradley now?

The only explanation that makes sense is that Marquez fought a little too well for his good in November. Say what you will about Bob Arum and his team at Top Rank, but there are no dummies working in that Las Vegas office. Goal No. 1 is to not let Pacquiao lose (except maybe against Mayweather, when Manny is a fight or two away from retirement). And with Marquez, the third fight illustrated that at any weight and on any date, JMM gives Pacquiao fits.

Again, there's nothing wrong with a Pacquiao-Bradley fight. The man known as "Desert Storm" is a top-10 pound-for-pounder and a credible foe.

But he's no Marquez. Not in terms of name value, not in terms of in-ring excitement and not in terms of what's best for the sport.

I guess the Mexican master was never getting a fourth fight against Pacquiao, no matter what transpired last November.

If Marquez had gotten bowled over, as many predicted, it would have provided a conclusive end to their trilogy.

Instead, we got an ending inconclusive enough to ensure that another chapter won't be written.

If any fighter can claim to be Madison Square Garden's biggest star, it is undoubtedly Miguel Cotto, who proved again on Saturday night that he can repeatedly pack the sport's most storied venue to the rafters.

But while Cotto may be "The Man" at the Garden today, the arena has played host to many a fighter who has punched his way into the history books, and a few hours before Cotto took on Antonio Margarito in front of more than 21,000 screaming fans, a select few were treated to an audience with some of those shining lights from MSG's past: former middleweight champ Vito Antuofermo, still a regular on the New York fight scene; Hall of Fame former lightweight champ Carlos Ortiz; Marvis Frazier, who fought his first four fights at the Garden and whose father won arguably the greatest, and surely the most famous, bout in the arena's history; famed heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney, whose 54-second knockout of Ken Norton is the shortest main event the Garden has staged; Cooney's former in-ring nemesis, and now his out-of-the-ring friend, legendary heavyweight champion Larry Holmes; and the one member of the group who technically is still an active fighter, former heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield.

Although the Garden may have been supplanted by the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as the epicenter of the sport's big events, it still occupies a revered niche in boxing history and in its pomp was the ultimate destination of any aspirant boxer.

"When I first was told I was going to come to MSG and fight here -- oh boy. It's something," Ortiz said. "You have to learn how to conduct yourself, but actually just by thinking of it, you get weak. Weak feet, weak legs. Fighting at MSG, it's out of this world."

It's a feeling, he added, that has yet to truly leave him. "I get chills every time I see the arena from the outside," he said. "Oh boy. 'I fought there,' I say."

"They told me I was going to fight at the Garden against a guy called Bobby Bozic," Holmes recalled of his Garden debut, his fifth professional fight, in 1973. "And I thought I'd better get myself in shape because they said, 'If you win at the Garden, you've got a home.' And so I wanted a home, I wanted to fight here. And I did win that fight, but I almost killed myself winning it because I overtrained, and that six-round fight, it was like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila -- except it was a six-round fight and it was Larry Holmes and Bobby Bozic."

Antuofermo recalled fighting in the finals of the Golden Gloves in front of a full house of 20,000 in 1970.

"I was never scared. One of my problems was I was never scared to fight anybody," he said. "But I was scared that night. We walked from the dressing room, and they shut the lights off. And I hear a noise, everybody shouting 'Vi-to'. And that was the scariest moment of my life; my first night at the Garden."

Both Frazier and Holyfield took their professional bows at the Garden -- Frazier assuredly aided by his status as son of one of the greats, Holyfield by his membership in the renowned 1984 Olympic class, several members of whom made their pro debuts that same night.

"I'm fighting against a guy who's Philadelphia state champion," Holyfield said. "This guy looks just like Joe Louis and he was already a champ. He had 12 fights already and I ain't had no fights. So I realized that I'm supposed to win, so I guess I'll go in there … and win."

But if there was one fight at the Garden he could have over, Holyfield admitted, it would be his controversial draw with Lennox Lewis in 1999.

"He's the only guy I ever let get to me," he said. "I told him, 'I'm going to knock you out in the third round.' So the only round he's gonna make sure he don't get knocked out is the third round. I went back to the corner when that round was over, and I started to step out of the ring and walk out. If it wasn't for my son being in the corner, standing right there, I would have walked out. I just didn't want anybody to tell my son, 'Just like your daddy, when he had pressure, he walked out.' That's the only thing that kept me in that ring, because I was so embarrassed by opening my mouth and telling somebody I was going to knock them out in the third round."

For most of those on stage, it had been a long time since they experienced the bright lights and the loud crowds. But for them all, the memories of headlining at the Mecca of Boxing are as vivid as if they had occurred yesterday.

"When I walk in that door, I remember every single fight I had in there," Cooney said. "That's what the Garden means to me."

Once, while sitting next to a professional prizefighter as we looked down from the bleachers at two men swapping punches in the ring below, I mentioned that at times I found it strange the way boxing compels men who do not know each other to meet for the first time, beat each other up and then go their separate ways.

"When you're alone in a ring with your opponent," the fighter said, "the two of you become closer than any other people in the world."

Given the violence that brings it about, it is perhaps surprising that this closeness can yield to friendship: Witness, for example, Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti, who went life-and-death with each other over three fights before Ward retired and, ultimately, became Gatti's trainer. On the other hand, there are cases like Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, for whom every punch only added to the enmity they felt, and feel, for each other.

And then there is Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.

"To the last, I grapple with thee"

There was a time when Miguel Cotto did not know Antonio Margarito, did not even know his name. Had their lives taken different paths, it likely would have remained that way. Even after the night of July 26, 2008 -- that brutal night in Las Vegas when Margarito overwhelmed Cotto, beating him down and out -- they were united as foes who had submitted each other to simultaneous trials of fire. The events of Jan. 24, 2009, changed that, turned Margarito from Cotto's conqueror to his nemesis, from the man who had defeated him to the man who, in Cotto's mind and the minds of many others, cheated and in the process might have severely harmed him.

Once Margarito was discovered, in the dressing room prior to his fight with Shane Mosley, to have worn illegal inserts in his hand wraps, everything changed. The severity of the beating he delivered in the second half of the fight, the way his punches were seemingly able to gather intensity as the battle unfolded, the state of Cotto's face by the time the towel was waved in surrender -- it all seemed to make sense. For a long time, Cotto would not be drawn into the matter, but in his own mind he was certain, and internally he seethed.

"From Hell's heart, I stab at thee"

After Cotto defeated Ricardo Mayorga in March of this year, he sat on the dais at the postfight news conference as promoter Bob Arum called Margarito to the stage. Arum was putting the pieces in place for the rematch, for the opportunity for the two men to score either redemption or revenge, for Margarito to beat Cotto again and make the case he neither had nor needed tampered wraps the first time; or for Cotto to reverse the result and assert the opposite. Margarito offered Cotto his hand; Cotto, contemptuously, shook it as casually and briefly as possible, unable and unwilling to look his tormentor in the eye.

For two years, as much as he may have wanted his revenge, Cotto refused to even consider it, refused to countenance the idea of helping Margarito earn one cent more. The lure of 500 million cents of his own helped change that, and as the date of destiny approached, Cotto's expressionless veneer finally cracked. He outright accused Margarito of cheating and endangering his life. And, pointing to Margarito's right eye, which had been badly beaten by Manny Pacquiao last November -- to the point that it seemed uncertain whether the Mexican would ever fight again -- Cotto chillingly threatened to target it over and over, unconcerned by the damage he might inflict.

"I will take advantage of his eye, the way he took advantage with the plaster," he promised.

"For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee"

Whether or not Margarito was fighting with illegal hand wraps in 2008, Cotto committed a number of cardinal errors that facilitated his defeat. Even as he piled up points in the early going, he did not commit sufficiently to his combinations. He backed up as much as he moved sideways. He came to rest too often with his back against the ropes, leaning forward as he did so. The net result was that Margarito was able to plow endlessly forward, churning uppercuts that eventually chopped Cotto down.

From the opening bell at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, it was clear that this time would be different. Cotto moved constantly, but -- with the exception of a period in the fourth and fifth rounds when it looked as if a 3-year-old play was about to be reenacted -- he did not allow Margarito to drive him backward, was not pinned against the ropes, was not open to uppercuts. He fired a stiff jab, followed often by three-punch combinations. And, importantly, when Margarito closed the distance, Cotto tied him up and pushed him backward. That was what Mosley had done, and it would be key to Saturday's fight: This time, unlike last time, Cotto was the physically assertive fighter. Margarito never had the chance to get into his rhythm, never was able to walk Cotto down, instead spent most of the night following and chasing, increasingly lunging with his punches and taking artillery in return.

And Cotto, true to his word, pummeled Margarito's eye.

Every combination, it seemed, ended with a hook to the eye. Cotto circled to his left, his opponent's right, normally the last thing one should do against a right-handed opponent but the direction that afforded him the greatest opportunity to zero in on that tempting, vulnerable target. Sure enough, soon that eye began to redden. Then it began to swell. Eventually, it closed completely, and although the desperate pleadings of the Mexican's corner bought him more time -- time in which the only thing he earned was more punishment -- Margarito's night was done. After nine rounds, referee Steve Smoger, on the advice of the ringside physicians, called a halt to the contest. Miguel Cotto had his revenge.

Afterward, Cotto, wearing a shirt and tie as if returning from the office, his battered and bruised face a reminder of exactly what his day's work had entailed, insisted that there had been nothing especially personal about the whole enterprise, that he had merely done his job. But everyone present knew there was more to it than that, as evidenced not only before the bout, but during it, as Cotto tapped the tattoo of his late father and whispered that revenge was coming, and in the immediate aftermath, as he turned away after watching doctor and referee declare the fight was finished.

"I'm just glad this this is all over, that it's behind me," he said. "Now I can move on."

NEW YORK -- Hagler-Hearns: That's what promoter Bob Arum compared the level of heat and dislike on display between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito to at the final presser before the fighters' Saturday rematch at Madison Square Garden. There was no final faceoff between the boxers at the end of the press conference, despite it being customary, because, Arum explained, why risk an early skirmish?

Now, would there have been a faceoff if the arena wasn't 300 seats from a sellout? I speculate, but I'd guess yes.

I asked Arum, who promoted Hagler, why Marvin hated Hearns, who was no villain sort -- not anything like the dimpled alleged "criminal" Margarito. "Who the f--- knows?" Arum answered.

Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti recalled two other occasions when obvious enmity cancelled a faceoff: before Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson and before Oscar De La Hoya-Fernando Vargas.

"Why risk it? There was no need," Moretti said after Cotto and Margarito went their separate ways.

NEW YORK -- Pretty much everyone in the building on Saturday night expects Miguel Cotto to play "Pin the Glove on the Eye" on that messed-up, iffy right orb of Antonio Margarito.

I know what the doctors, a whole bunch of them, say: that the eye is fit to fight, that the Mexican-born hitter isn't any more susceptible to damage in his right eye than in his left. I accept that on face value. But if it were me in there, I'd like to do some tests myself.

I'd like to go at that thing without remorse, and test the doctors' theory. It's a pretty good bet that we'll see more jabs than usual from the Puerto Rican boxer this weekend at Madison Square Garden, and that his hook will be cookin' from minute one. He will be testing the doctors' findings for as long as the fight lasts.

Margarito's trainer, Robert Garcia, expects the same. He told ESPN.com that he asked sparring partners in camp not to steer away from the eye, but to target it, as he expects Cotto to do.

"I'm not even worried about the eye," Garcia said. "We have nothing to hide. We had [HBO's] '24/7' in camp and I never tried to prevent left hooks. I asked sparring partners to throw more jabs and hooks to get ready for it, because I know Cotto will. We have no worries about the eye. Like the doctor says, the same thing could happen to either eye. And if something happens, that's part of the sport."

Garcia was a more-than-fair pugilist in his day; he boxed from 1992 to 2001, and won a super featherweight crown while accruing a 34-3 mark. He lost three of his final five bouts, each time by KO, so he well understands the feeling and risk of getting tagged.

I wondered if he would have soldiered on if he had had surgery on a busted orbital bone, surgery to fix a detached retina and surgery to fix a cataract within a span of six months, as Margarito did. Garcia said he would if the doctors told him he could.

"He's healthy, the vision is good, and I was telling sparring partners to throw more left hooks," Garcia said of Margarito. "We have to be ready for that."

The trainer said he foresees a stoppage win for his guy.

"Last time, it was Round 11, and I see a similar kind of fight. I don't think Cotto is as fast and as strong as at welterweight, so it could happen maybe two rounds earlier."

I have a vision of that right eye getting puffed up quick, and it being a drag on Margarito. What about you, readers?