Weighing-in on Antonio Margarito
“I think Tony is going to do what nobody lately has been able to do,” Robert Garcia says, speaking about Antonio Margarito’s upcoming bout with Manny Pacquiao.
Garcia, Margarito’s trainer, is referring to beating Pacquiao, who hasn’t been defeated since 2005. Since then Pacquiao, led by the prodigious training force that is Freddie Roach, has beaten up on guys much bigger than him and even made them look ridiculous.
“The last one to do it was Erik Morales—he beat Pacquiao when he did it—and that’s not show him any respect. He can be backed up. He backs up easy. When you do that, you put him on the defensive and there’s a lot of things he does instinctively, like cover
up as he goes to the ropes, that a strong fighter like Tony can take advantage of.”
Pacquiao and Margarito are set to meet at the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas November 13. Considering Floyd Mayweather’s recent fall from grace, the fight will be the boxing highlight of the year. It’s expected to boast 70,000 fans. And it’s symbolic
underpinnings couldn’t be heavier. The lawmaker Pacquiao against the lawbreaker Margarito. How dead can a sport be that brings 70,000 people together in careful, delicate anticipation?
By most accounts, Margarito will be ready for this fight. It goes without saying that Pacquiao will be prepared—he’s made a science and devotion out of fight preparation. But Margarito, on the other hand, is bit a more interesting in that department.
He’s off and on, never a sure bet, a rogue card, and has shown his share of laxness for past marquee fights. Ring Magazine writer Doug Fischer, who caught Margarito spar before his January 2009 bout with Shane Mosley, said then his “legs were not under him,”
and we all know how that fight ended (Mosley scored a ninth round TKO).
Call it naive intuition, but something feels different this time around with Margarito. For one, there’s the situation into which he falls: a rich, historical situation, probably unmatched in all of boxing history. Faithful readers will recall that, in
the Mosley bout, Mosley’s spectacular TKO was basically dwarfed by a hand wrap incident before the fight. In Margarito’s locker room minutes before the action, Mosley’s trainer spotted hard inserts in Margarito’s wraps and instantly notified the California
State commission. The move ultimately chucked Margarito into the dumpster can of a small, forsaken group of fighters in boxing history.
Margarito himself denied the charges, and claimed he wasn’t aware of the inserts. He put all the blame on then-trainer Javier Capetillo and dumped him promptly. What followed was an official ban from boxing by various commissions. In the meantime the
boxing world mulled over the tantalizing story, with commentators taking every position under the sun. ‘Margarito is innocent! Trainers can sneak inserts into wraps without fighters knowing!’ some said. Others like Oscar De la Hoya claimed outright Margarito
should never be allowed to enter a ring again.
But now here he is, entering the ring again. And not just that: it can’t be denied that the man who paid the highest price in boxing has now been handed one of its highest accolades: an opportunity to steal the glory from the Best Fighter on the Planet.
That’s right: that’s what Margarito faces.
There are a few educated guesses we can make about this fight. For one, “Pacman” will easily take the early rounds. The real question will be how these guys will react after six rounds. Margarito is the kind of guy who gets better as time goes on—his
ferocity and aggression are compounded in later rounds—whereas it’s not so clear how Pacquiao will react to the barrage of an extraordinarily aggressive bigger guy. If Pacquiao doesn’t tire, scores clean shots and runs often, he can win the fight. But if
he gets caught like Miguel Cotto did—it just takes one shot—he’s in trouble. Because Margarito will be bringing the heat. He will bring it like Erik Morales did five years ago. So it’s really a question of whether Manny will be making the rules, or Margarito
will be breaking them.
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