Miguel Cotto to face Joshua Clottey at Madison Square Garden

Miguel Cotto heard about Antonio Margarito’s suspension for attempting to hide a plaster-like substance in his gloves and he wondered.

Cotto’s only loss came against Margarito, an 11th-round knockout in July of last year, several months before Margarito lost by knockout to Shane Mosley at Staples Center. It was before that fight that Margarito was discovered to have the illegal substance under his hand wrappings.

Cotto, who returns to the ring tonight against Joshua Clottey at Madison Square Garden, said he has never been hit as hard as he was by Margarito.

“The only punch that hurt me early was in the second round, when he broke my nose,” Cotto said. “But from the sixth round on, the punches were much heavier and harder. When you have a guy who would do something like that to harm another fighter, it isn’t right.”

Cotto, 28, will be fighting at the Garden for the fifth time on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York, where he’ll have partisan support.

“Now, in my career, it is like a tradition,” Cotto said. “Every year, fighting in front of thousands of Puerto Rican people at Madison Square Garden means a lot to me.”

The winner of tonight’s fight, which will be televised live on HBO, could earn lucrative bouts with Mosley, World Boxing Organization light middleweight and welterweight champion Paul Williams, or even International Boxing Organization champion Manny Pacquiao, who is regarded as boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter.

Cotto is coming off a fifth-round knockout of Michael Jennings in February at the Garden -- a victory that improved his record to 33-1 with 27 knockouts and earned him the WBO welterweight title.

Clottey, 32, has a record of 35-2 with 20 knockouts. One of his losses also was to Margarito, but Clottey went the distance despite a broken hand.

He said he expects Cotto to be tentative because of the beating he took from Margarito.

“I think so very, very much,” Clottey said. “I think if I go in there and beat him, he will have trouble getting back into the fight. I definitely think he won’t come to fight again.”

Born in Ghana, Clottey lives in the Bronx, though he doesn’t enjoy nearly the local following of his rival. Clottey is an inch taller than the 5-foot-8 Cotto and weighed in Friday at 147 pounds, one pound heavier.

Cotto enters the fight without his uncle and longtime primary trainer, Evangelista Cotto. They split after the Jennings fight because of an altercation that involved a cinder block being thrown through the window of Cotto’s Jaguar.

Cotto has received instructions from Joe Santiago, who for three years has been a member of the fighter’s training camp. Cotto said his training went smoothly in his uncle’s absence.

“Less pressure on me, less pressure with everything,” he said. “The communication between all the members of the team makes things run better.”

Cotto also said his new trainer will have an additional responsibility.

“It was a mistake by my trainer that no one went to [Margarito’s] dressing room [to check his gloves],” Cotto said. “He didn’t send anybody to our dressing room, so we never sent anybody to his.

“That will never happen again.”

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lsatterfield@digitalsports.com