By Scoop Malinowski

The renowned boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar does not attend many boxing press conferences. But yesterday the Sugar Man was a very interested observer at the “Cotto-Margarito The Battle” media event at the Echo Unlimited headquarters in lower Manhattan.

Bert, why are you so high on this fight? “This isn’t the fight of the decade, it’s the fight of the century!” declared the man who has seen them all since Joe Louis. “I got two guys who are all action all the time. I think they can send the judges home right now [laughs]! I mean, this is beautiful. I love this fight. And these are the two - two of the top 10, if not two and three - and I’m not sure I’d put Mayweather in that 1-2-3 in the world today, pound-for-pound. This is a great fight.”

Whoa, look at Mayweather’s status just plummet and plummet right before our eyes. If you want to call yourself the best you have to fight the best. Ducking and dodging the best to fight business fights will not be accepted. Let Mayweather call himself, The smartest business fighter in the world today. You can have that label Floyd. It’s all yours. But don’t dare call yourself the best if you refuse to fight the best, who absolutely are Cotto or Margarito.

But back to Bert Sugar. Bert, when is the last time you were excited for a fight like this? “Probablyyyy…Saad Muhammad and Dwight Braxton [smiles]. No, this is a great fight. And you have to understand the antipathy of Mexican-Puerto Rican, Salvador Sanchez-Wilfredo Gomez, Wilfredo Gomez and Carlos Zarate. This is, I mean this, and they were just beating the bejabbers out of each other. This is what it’s about.”

Will you be going to this one? “Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?!”

From the Cotto perspective, they are taking this fight extremely seriously. I was told by Top Rank PR man Lee Samuels that “Cotto is training like a maniac already. He was in Kingsway (gym) yesterday for 2 1/2 hours.” Whoa, it’s more than two months away from July 26 and Cotto is still in very good condition from the Gomez fight on April 12. Cotto’s fitness guru Phil Landman is already working with Cotto and was at the press conference yesterday. Two sources from Los Angeles echoed Samuels’ insight, “Cotto is training like an animal already.”

Stay tuned to Boxinginsider.com for much more coverage on Cotto vs. Margarito, next week we will talk to Margarito and his manager Sergio Diaz about the fight and their take on the very elongated negotiation process…