By Rafael Soto

Former welterweight world champion Antonio Margarito is moving forward with his goal of securing a trilogy fight with Miguel Cotto.

On Saturday night at the Manuel Bernardo Aguirre Gym in Chihuahua, Mexico, Margarito (41-8-1, 27 KOs) picked up a seventh round technical decision over Carson Jones (41-12-3, 30 KOs).

The judges' scores were 68-64, 67-65, 67-65 - all in favor of Margarito, and the outcome caused a lot of controversy.

The two fighters began their contest with a furious pace, exchanging hard shots at close range from bell to bell.

In the second round, a clash of heads opened up a cut above the right eye of Margarito. Another clash of heads in the fifth would cost Jones a point.

By the sixth round, Margarito was rapidly losing steam and he was starting to take a lot of punishment. He appeared to be ready to go in the seventh round, as Jones repeatedly rocked him with hard punches.

At the end of the seventh, Margairto had complained that he was having issue with right eye, due to the cut on the eyelid. The ringside doctor stopped the contest.

At first it appeared to have been a TKO win for Jones, but it was revealed that the fight would be heading to the cards.

After the contest was over, Margarito complained that Jones was very dirty in the contest, but despite the cut had plans to go back to work in the gym and target a December trilogy fight with Cotto, who plans to retire at the end of the year.

"Jones was very dirty. During the entire fight he was head butting me and from the second round on [the cut] hurt me and it affected me constantly. I was telling the referee about his head, but justice was done. I will continue in my goal to pursue a fight with Miguel Cotto," Margarito said.

Margarito, 39 years old, handed Cotto his first career defeat with a stoppage victory in 2008, which the Puerto Rican star avenged when he picked up a TKO win in their 2011 rematch. Because of issues with his right eye, Margarito retired after that fight and only resumed his career in early 2016.