Older, wiser Cotto ready for business

LAS VEGAS -- The last time Miguel Cotto fought in Las Vegas he spent part of his week getting thrown out of the Mandalay Bay casino by a security guard.

“He thought I was a minor,” said Cotto, who was 24 at the time.

That was nearly four years ago, and Cotto has grown both older and wiser. So when he walked through the MGM Grand casino on Wednesday, he made sure there was no mistaking the fact he was an important man, dressing impressively in a sharp tan suit with a yellow shirt and striped tie.

“This is not a game,” said Cotto, the World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion, who puts his title on the line Saturday at the MGM against Antonio Margarito. “This is something I take seriously.”

In his last formal meeting with the media before the bout, Cotto, 27, had his game face on, speaking mostly in hushed tones, rarely smiling or raising his eyes. The relaxed Margarito showed up in a T-shirt, shorts and rubber flip-flops.

Their styles in the ring differ, too, with Cotto, a blue-collar fighter, showing an ability to both take and give a shot while wearing down opponents. Margarito, four inches taller at 5 feet 11, is a tireless, devastating puncher and tenacious infighter who threw 1,675 punches in a 12-round win over Joshua Clottey in December 2006.

But he may have dropped his guard this week when he said he would knock out the unbeaten Cotto by the fourth round, a statement he spent part of Wednesday trying to correct.

“We were playing,” said Margarito, who admitted he made the comment but said he was talking to a group of friends and never intended for his words to go public. “Really I never think about knockouts. Let me tell you, this fight will go 12 rounds.”

He did stick to one part of his prediction: “I feel confident enough in my preparation that I’m going to leave [the ring] with my hand raised.”

Cotto (32-0, 26 knockouts) had a concise response. “I’m going to climb out of the ring as a champion,” he said.

The oddsmakers agree. Margarito was nearly a 3-1 underdog Wednesday.

Margarito (36-5, 26 knockouts), a two-time world champion from Tijuana, gave up his International Boxing Federation belt to fight Cotto instead of taking a rematch against Clottey, the mandatory IBF challenger. That decision will pay off financially with the HBO pay-per-view bout certain to produce a rich purse.

And it could pay off in other ways. If Margarito, 30, beats Cotto, that could set up a title defense against either Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather Jr., should Mayweather decide to end his retirement.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com

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FIGHT FACTS

Who: WBA world welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-0, 26 KOs) vs. Antonio Margarito (36-5, 26 KOs).

When: Saturday, 5 p.m.

Where: Las Vegas.