Should Texas deny Margarito’s appeal for a license?
Will morals be put above money? It’s doubtful. Even if the Texas commission turns Antonio Margarito down in his bid for a boxing license this week, it won’t be clear it was to preserve morals. But it will be a surprise, and an interesting one at that.
Most are expecting the former welterweight titlist to receive a license so that he can participate in a 13 November bout with seven-division titlist Manny Pacquiao. The bout, arranged by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, has already fuelled its share of controversy due to Margarito’s unique circumstances. In a title match with Shane Mosley early last year a hardened plaster was found in Margarito’s hand wraps. His license was immediately revoked and the boxing world flurried about how he had cheated and could have seriously injured Mosley.
From the onset of the controversy, Margarito denied he knew anything about the wraps. He hastily fired his manager, Javier Capetillo, and rallied the support of his promoter Bob Arum. While various boxing specialists stated that it would be possible to trainers to ‘plant’ illegal plaster in wraps without their fighters knowing it, others such as Oscar de la Hoya have criticized Margarito on moral grounds and suggested he receive a fixed ban from boxing.
Last week Margarito appealed to the California State Athletic Commission to renew his license and his claim was rejected. This was a surprise to some, but others said it mattered little, as Arum already had plans of hosting the fight in Dallas, Texas. The real question, therefore, is whether Texas will allow Margarito to be licensed.
There’s a bit of a murky back story here. In 2008, The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations was called forth to license now late Edwin Valero, who was previously declared unfit for combat in New York after an MRI revealed brain scan irregularities. Seven years prior, Valero had been involved in a serious motorcycle accident and had brain surgery. The TDLR allowed Valero to compete, but the worst was proven true less than two years later: Valero ended up murdering his wife and committing suicide, indicating he had serious neurological imbalances and shouldn’t have been allowed to fight anywhere. While the depth of his condition couldn’t have been foreseen or known to the TDLR, many still suggest they shouldn’t have let him compete, having known about MRI irregularities.
Despite this tragic tale, few doubt that the TDLR will deny Margarito a license. They have never been known to reject applicant claims, and just last week Bob Arum expressed his optimism, claiming: The revocation is over, they've denied Antonio Margarito a license [...] But now, every state is free to grant him a license or deny him a license."
The main reason it is unlikely Texas will deny Margarito a license is, of course, money. A fight between Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey, who doesn’t boast much of a fan base in Texas, managed to draw in some 50,000 people into Cowboy Stadium. Due to Margarito’s Mexican descent, it’s expected that a bout there would draw a figure no less than 70,000. And with negotiations between Bob Arum and Jerry Jones [Dallas Cowboys’ owner] all but finalized, it seems naive to think a commission would put a halt to the fight, given its economic prospects.
At the same time, considering the implications of a surprising “No” on the side of the TDLR make for good boxing analysis. Would Arum still be interested in moving this fight forward, or would he give up on Margarito for the time being? Would De la Hoya and Golden Boy finally be able to capitalize on the verdicts by putting Juan Manuel Marquez up for a third fight with Pacquiao? Only time will tell.
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