La Fonda Boricua restaurant braces for emotionally charged fight - ESPN.com - 22/07/08

Patrons of La Fonda Boricua restaurant in Spanish Harlem will be dishing out lots of love to their favorite son, Miguel Cotto, on Saturday.

NEW YORK -- When most boxing fans start talking about the greatest fights in the 1970s, their conversation usually turns to Ali-Frazier I at Madison Square Garden. With the anticipation of a heavyweight championship fight and a star-studded crowd in an electrified arena, the "Mecca of Boxing," the "Fight of the Century" had something for everybody.

That's not the fight Exel Marrero, a 48-year-old Puerto Rican businessman who lives in Brooklyn, flashes back to when he thinks of the great fights of the 1970s, though.

"I think about Carlos Zarate versus Wilfredo Gomez," Marrero said, referring to the 1978 showdown between undefeated super featherweight fighters. "That was a great fight. Man, what a bloody battle. Those guys were going at it from the start of the bell to the finish. They had to pull them off of each other at the end of each round after the bell. They'd still be going at each other. You don't have those kinds of fights anymore."

Marrero is one of the many Puerto Rican boxing fans whose passions are ignited by the heated rivalry between Mexican and Puerto Rican boxers.

The flames are being fanned again as Miguel Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico, defends his WBA welterweight title against Antonio Margarito of Tijuana, Mexico, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

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