To call Saturday's result from Madison Square Garden a surprise for Miguel Cotto would be an understatement. So go ahead and add disappointment while you're at it.

The four-division champ from Puerto Rico was supposed to ride off into the sunset with a career-capping domination of upstart Sadam Ali, but he instead suffered the same swan song fate as scores of previous aging legends -- in this case dropping a unanimous decision to the once-beaten Brooklyn native before a packed house at what had long served as Cotto's home arena.

The defeat was the sixth in 47 fights for the 37-year-old Cotto, who'd said he was quitting to spend more time with his family after a pro career that began in 2001. It also cost him his sixth and final title belt, the WBO 154-pound crown that he'd won four months ago in Southern California.

Ali, who'd dropped his only previous title bout against Jessie Vargas (TKO 9) at 147 pounds and was fighting for just the fourth title above the welterweight limit, improved to 26-1.

He earned the verdict by 115-113 scores (7-5 in rounds) on two cards and 116-112 (8-4) on the third – winning the final four rounds on all three cards.

CBS Sports agreed, seeing Ali a 115-113 winner.

"Good things happen to good people," he said. "I have been training since I was 8 years old, and I am glad I got this win at MSG, in my hometown."

The 29-year-old was on even terms with Cotto through the first round, then announced his presence with authority in the second by wobbling the veteran with a pair of right hands. He continued to use superior long-range speed and footwork through the fight's first half, though Cotto made a strong stand in the sixth when he began scoring with his own straight right -- a seldom-used weapon.

Cotto continued to rally in the seventh and hurt Ali with a body shot late in the round, but the younger man stood his ground in the eighth and reassumed working from the distance that had helped him early on, landing a good uppercut as the round ended. He seemed to carry that confidence into the 10th, when he landed a good straight right as well as an uppercut and a hook with the left.

The momentum continued into the 11th with Ali pressing the action and Cotto suddenly looking spent after taking a big left hand. The veteran got through the 12th and probably deserved it with the grit he showed, but he was never close to creating the late drama it turned out he needed.

Post-fight punch statistics said Cotto landed more overall shots -- 163-139 -- over 12 rounds, but Ali had a 122-108 edge in power shots, including a 42-22 margin in that category over the final three rounds.

Still, Cotto landed more punches in seven of 12 rounds, compared to four for Ali and one even. 

And now, because his career is ending in 2017, he'll be eligible for International Boxing Hall of Fame consideration with the Class of 2022.

When his swan song is compared to others whose Hall credentials are green-lighted without question, he comes off looking particularly exceptional. A quick glance across a list of inductees reveals a laundry list of all-timers whose inglorious ends hardly justified their legendary reputations.

Mike Tyson, whose titillating run included exactly zero wins against in-prime Hall-worthy heavyweights, lost by stoppage in three of his final four fights -- and was instantly enshrined five years later.

Arturo Gatti, also a stoppage loser in three of his last four fights, and also a winner over precisely no one whose credentials leap off the page -- was also enshrined the second he became eligible.

And even Terry Norris, whose most remembered feat remains a 12-round whitewash of a past-vintage Sugar Ray Leonard, was given a plaque in 2005 -- seven years after ending with a three-fight skid.

So if anyone questions Cotto because he finished with an L instead of a W, they're just wrong.

The Puerto Rican's affirmation was complete long before Saturday's finale came into view, probably more so around the time he shook off a brutal welterweight loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2009 and climbed back to grab a belt at 154 pounds – his third – with a TKO of a gimpy-legged Yuri Foreman.

He'd already defeated multi-belted guys with names such as Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah and Shane Mosley, but the mettle he showed with yet another reinvention exceeds that which many with higher reputations ever achieved. He stopped perpetual troublemaker Ricardo Mayorga in defense No. 1 nine months later and then scored his most satisfying personal win with a tactical hammering of Antonio Margarito in December 2011.

History will record him as just a .500 fighter (four up, four down) from that point forward. 

But when you see the stretch-run foes included the Floyd Mayweathers, Sergio Martinezes and Saul Alvarezes – not the Kevin McBrides, Carlos Baldomirs, and Dana Rosenblatts of some others -- it's clear that the version of Cotto who's exiting in 2017 is not so competitively diminished from the one who peaked years before.

He fought everyone. And even though he might have lost the ones that mattered the most, he won more than enough of the others to even the slate.

That's the sort of career that deserves recognition, no matter how the story ends.

On the HBO-televised undercard, unbeaten 122-pound champion Rey Vargas made the second successful defense of his WBC title, carrying the fight to 10th-ranked challenger Oscar Negrete on the way to a wide decision victory.

Vargas, now 31-0, earned win by scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 120-108, capturing 34 of a possible 36 rounds across the three official scorecards.

CBS Sports saw two rounds for Negrete and scored it 118-110 for the winner.

It was the first fight in the United States for Vargas, 27, who won his title with a majority decision over Gavin McDonnell in February and defended with a unanimous defeat of Ronny Rios in August.

The Mexico City native controlled the first half of the fight against Negrete, but had to endure some drama after suffering nasty cuts over both eyes in the seventh and eighth rounds. The sight of blood invigorated the previously unbeaten Negrete, who was making his title-fight debut, but Vargas was able to maintain his edge with effective work along the ropes.

Negrete complained of an injury to his left shoulder in the 11th round.

He is now 17-1.

Former 122-pound world title challenger Ronny Rios returned to the winning side of the ledger with a workmanlike unanimous decision over Colombian southpaw Deivi Julio Bassa.

Rios, a 27-year-old from Santa Ana, California, earned the verdict by scores of 97-93, 99-91 and 100-90.

He'd dropped a unanimous decision to Vargas in an unsuccessful bid for the WBC belt on the undercard of Cotto's fight with Yoshihiro Kamegai on Aug. 26 in Carson, California.

"(Bassa) was a southpaw with an awkward style," Rios said. "He was also a veteran, so he had his little tricks. Overall, this was a huge motivation, and I'm just glad to get back in my groove."

Now 28-2, Rios' only other loss (TKO 5) came in 2014 against former 130-pound world title challenger Robinson Castellanos.

Bassa, 36, fell to 19-4.

Puerto Rican Angel Acosta became a world title claimant for the first time with a 10th-round stoppage of Juan Alejo to capture the recently vacated WBO junior flyweight title championship.

Acosta had dropped a unanimous decision to then-champ Kosei Tanaka in May, but Tanaka relinquished the title to move from 108 to 112 pounds.

Saturday's end came at 1:33 of the 10th, when a battered Alejo was dropped and could not beat the 10-count of referee Benjy Esteves Jr.

All 17 of Acosta's victories have come by stoppage, all in 10 rounds or less. The loss to Tanaka was the only time he's gone the distance.

"It's taken me five years to get here," he said, "and I'm cherishing this moment for me and for Puerto Rico."

Alejo lost a previous try for the WBO belt in 2015, when he dropped a decision to Donnie Nietes.

He is 24-5-1.

Elsewhere, Brooklyn welterweight Zachary Ochoa won a unanimous decision over Mexico's Erick Martinez in a six-rounder, scoring a 60-54 shutout on all three cards.

Ochoa is 18-1. He'd last fought in July and suffered his lone career loss in March.

"This puts me in a great spot in my career," he said. "I was shaking off a lot of dust since I haven't been able to fight consistently, but this proves to me that I'm still worthy of the sport. I still have work to do, but when I was able to land my shots, I was able to connect them crisp and effectively."

Irish teenager Aaron McKenna was scheduled to make his pro debut in a four-round welterweight bout, but the fight was scratched when his opponent, Victor Gaytan, had licensing issues. McKenna is now scheduled to start his career on next week's Lomachenko-Rigondeaux card.