Cotto stops Gomez, retains title

April 13, 2008

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Miguel Cotto battered Alfonso Gomez for five rounds last night to retain his World Boxing Association welterweight title and set up a fight with new International Boxing Federation champion Antonio Margarito.

Earlier, Margarito dominated Kermit Cintron and knocked him out in the sixth round to win the IBF crown.

Cotto had no trouble with the outmanned Gomez and ran his record to 32-0 with 26 knockouts when Dr. Mark Schaber stopped the fight after a lopsided fifth round, in which Gomez went down for the third time. Gomez's face was swollen almost from the first time the Puerto Rican star hit him in the mismatch.

By the end of the fifth, Cotto was backing off, seeing that the one-time participant in The Contender TV show couldn't contend with his power and precision.

In the third and fourth rounds alone, Cotto outlanded Gomez 108-23, and two of the knockdowns came on body shots. A straight left to the face late in the fifth provided the third knockdown, and Cotto landed 59 percent of his power punches.

"I wanted to work and do it the right way," Cotto said of his fourth defense of the title he won here Dec. 2, 2006, against Carlos Quintana.

[ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Cotto stops Gomez, retains title

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Cotto stops Gomez, retains title

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