Cotto, Margarito differ on warrior’s code

By the fifth round of his fight against Manny Pacquiao, it was apparent it would take a miracle for Antonio Margarito to win. By the eighth, his right eye looked worse than Rocky Balboa’s ever did in the movies. And by the 12th round of that Nov. 13, 2010, bout in Arlington, Texas, there was a lot of concern among those at ringside about Margarito’s eyesight.

Margarito, though, didn’t give up. He didn’t quit. He never thought about it. Nor did he retreat in an effort to avoid Pacquiao’s lightning fast combinations that were, quite literally, busting up his face.

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Veterans Miguel Cotto (left) and Antonio Margarito are getting ready for their rematch.
(AP)

“I am a fighter and real fighters don’t quit,” Margarito growled. “I was there to give the people what they want to see. They came to see a fight and I was giving it to them.”
Boxing fans can be a bloodthirsty group, booing angrily when a referee stops a bout before their lust for violence has been sated. They’re no different than NASCAR fans who, no matter what they might tell you, go to the track by the hundreds of thousands looking to see a fiery wreck. If all crashes were magically eliminated, attendance at NASCAR races would drop very quickly and there would probably be no talk of new long-term TV deals.
That high-speed violence is why we watch, why we’re captivated by guys like Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and fighters like Margarito and Miguel Cotto. The lust for violence is why Margarito’s bout against Cotto for the World Boxing Association super Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York figures to be a pay-per-view hit. People remember their savage 2008 bout in Las Vegas and know how the rivalry between them has only increased tenfold in the intervening three-and-a-half years.


The dislike between the men is real and deep. Cotto has come to believe that Margarito wore hand wraps filled with plaster when they fought the first time. At the filming of a promotional piece for HBO, Cotto pulled out his iPad to show Margarito and host Max Kellerman a close-up of Margarito’s ungloved hand, which he said was proof that Margarito’s wraps were loaded.
Saturday’s bout should be no less savage than the first, with each promising to inflict an unreal amount of mayhem upon the other.
Cotto makes no bones about the fact that he plans to target Margarito’s right eye. After the Pacquiao fight, Margarito required several surgeries to repair the injuries he suffered. At one point, before he visited ophthalmologist Alan Crandall, Margarito planned to retire because he was essentially blind in the eye.
Margarito had a broken orbital bone and he had new lens implanted. In addition, he developed a cataract and that needed to be removed surgically.

It led to last week’s dog-and-pony show, in which they New York State Athletic Commission made Margarito jump through hoops before issuing him a license to fight.

Starting a business with nothing

The sixth step in building an online
"store" that has the capacity to reach
a worldwide audience is to find
 affiliate products.

Now, it is important
 to listen closely: this means that you
 don't need to have a product of your
 own.  You don't even need a website.
  What you need is a deep sense of
what YOU are excited about, find a
group of people who are also excited,
and find a product or service that
you yourself use and love.  Then
you can HONESTLY recommend
 it to others.

Once you find such a good or
service, you can approach them
directly and ask if they have an
affiliate program.  Or you can go
to a site like "Clickbank" and search
to find products with affiliate
programs.  Sign up, and they will
 give you a personalized link.

Here's a scenario for you: you are
dead broke.   You love, say, chocolate.
  You Google affiliate programs and
 find your favorite chocolate confections,
sold on Clickbank.  Sign up, get a link.
  Now.   Start a blog about chocolate,
 "Steve's Chocolate Blog." 
You're
dead broke, unemployed, so you have
lots of time, right?  All you have to
 leverage is your time and energy.
So every day you post articles on your
 blog talking about wonderful things
 about chocolate, and on that blog,
 you put your affiliate link. 
NOTE:
 NONE OF THIS HAS COST YOU
 A DIME. 

Now.   You spend a full eight-hour
day (or as little as one hour...or as
 much as twelve.  How much time
do you have?  How desperate are
 you to build a business?) googling
"candy blog" or "chocolate blog" or
other things, and you find a "starving
hive" of chocoholics and blogs and
discussion groups. 
And you read
 them, and post intelligent, useful
 comments.
Funny comments.
 NEVER "spam" by just dropping
a link.  Give them value.
Give
them your heart.  Share your
 love of delicious chocolate with
 no more than about fifty words.
  Shouldn't take you more than
 five-ten minutes per blog post. 

With every post, add a link back
 to YOUR blog.   Traffic will follow.
  On your blog, sing the honest
praises of the affiliate product,
and talk glowingly (AND
 HONESTLY) about your
experiences with it.
People will
 buy, if they believe you.  NEVER LIE.

If you are self-published, then
this is more complicated: you
have to have a way to deliver
your product to the customer,
either digital download or mail.

 And how to set up and take
electronic payments.  
You will
have to research how to do these
things...Google is your friend.

You will make sales.  Checks
will begin to arrive in your mailbox,
 or Paypal account.   And you have
 invested NOTHING but time. 
You didn't need a product, or a
web site. 
You have just learned
the secret of making money
online, using nothing but your
 passion, your time, and your
energy. 
If you don't have internet
you can manage your blog from
 a library or friend's house.

This works.
You can bootstrap
 yourself from homelessness to
 a multi-million dollar business,
just by starting here.
Also, commit
to learn one new thing about
sales, marketing, and the Internet
 marketing revolution every day.

Every word I've posted here is true.
  I've invested thousands of dollars
 of time and money learning this
over the last twenty years, and
 I've decided to give it away
because people are hurting, and
 I want to give ANYONE with
the will to earn a living the
chance to take a shot at this.

Almost two billion people are
on the internet.  Only a few
 thousand people know how
to actually make money on it.
 I've laid out the simplest way
 I know, requiring no investment,
 no computer skill, and nothing
 but honesty and passion.

Good luck!

##

Your ability to use this pattern,
or any pattern of success, will be
 based on many factors, including
 your ability to set clear focused
 goals, maintain high energy
through emotional depression,
and shut out the negative voices
(external and internal) that are
 GUARANTEED to devil you.