Pacquiao v Margarito, but does anyone care?
With the last remnants of hope and dignity long since dredged out of the Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao super-fight fiasco, thoughts turn to Mayweather’s replacement, Antonio Margarito.
But in truth does anyone really care about this fight?
The Pacquiao v Mayweather duel was an overly protracted, exasperating affair that needed to be put out of its misery one way or another, but bringing in Margarito is just depressing. For those out of the loop Margarito was found guilty of having a substance “similar to that of plaster of Paris” on his gloves prior to the fight with Shane Mosley. An eagle-eyed Mosley corner man noticed something was amiss so Margarito had his hands rewrapped and promptly got smashed about by “Sugar Shane”, which makes you wonder how many times the Mexican had been plaster assisted before? It certainly makes the Miguel Cotto victory look less impressive.
You would have thought such a heinous crime would make “the Tijuana Tornado” a pariah of the sport. But instead, following his ban, he gets a shot at the pound-for-pound champion. One of the best pay days in boxing. It’s lunacy, boxing has always been a business but Bob Arum is pushing fans’ patience with this one. Its one thing throwing in one of his stooges on the basis he can have an all-Top Rank match-up, but choosing the disgraced Margarito is nigh on insulting. You get the feeling Arum would have wanted it this way rather than Mayweather all along.
Although promoters and managers have matched their guys up like this throughout boxing history, you get a particularly bitter taste when you see it’s Margarito and the pay per view sales may reflect that. Although he’s always denied it and may have only done it once, having loaded gloves is breaking sacred boxing rules and quite frankly should be dealt with a lifetime ban. There are plenty of other worthy challengers out there, Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams, Andre Berto, Timothy Bradley Junior, even another instalment of the Pacquiao- Juan Manuel Marquez series would be better than Margarito.
Even aside from the hand-wrap scandal does Margarito deserve it? Like Joshua Clottey it seems more of a convenience than anything else, with a record of 36-6 his best wins have been the now questionable Cotto victory and Kermit Cintron, while Mosley destroyed him and Williams out boxed him. A lot of fighters out there will be thinking maybe he isn’t the standard that should be to get in the ring with “Pacman” right now, let’s face it the Filipino is basically on another level to most and should there for be fighting the best contenders. Margarito has fast hands and is bigger than Pacquiao with a longer reach, but still it’s hard to look past Pacman for a comfortable lopsided win.
Anyone watching will surely be doing so mainly to watch the latest Pacquiao invasion of another weight class. It’s worth noting that this will be another Pacman fight coming in at a catchweight. It’s been set at 151lbs and when you consider that Freddie Roach claimed that Pacman is at his best at 140lbs, then you do wonder how long he will be able to carry his skills up the divisions. Against Clottey he did look slightly slower having gone up to around 146lbs, so it’s a big push from him, but at the same time Margarito will be coming down from 154lbs so both men are imposing a lot on themselves in terms of their previous fighting weights.
Also there is a vacant light-middleweight crown in the offing, which is surely where the interest lies. Pacquiao is set to become a world champion in an eighth division. That is ridiculous when you think about it, moving all the way up from flyweight to light-middleweight, how much more muscle can his 5ft 7inch frame take?
I bet even the Klitschkos are looking over their shoulders.
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