Dan Rafael of espn.com reports that Antonio Margarito has been approved for his boxing License and will take on Miguel Cotto on December 3rd in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Margarito was originally denied a license after it was revealed his eye was not cleared by the omission after surgery for a cataract. The figures to be a lot of boxing betting on this fight. To bet on this fight click here
“There is a fight. This gotta be a chapter in my book,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum exclaimed after watching the commission hearing on a live webcast. The commission had reservations about licensing Margarito because of a serious eye injury he suffered in a lopsided decision loss to Manny Pacquiao last November. Margarito suffered a badly broken orbital bone in his face and developed a cataract in his right eye.
“We went through a lot and Antonio saw every doctor he was asked to see and all of them gave us the same news — that everything was great and that there was no reason for him not to be approved,” Sergio Diaz, Margarito’s co-manager, said. “When we told Antonio he was licensed, he was screaming and he was happy. Now he is saying he has to take care of business come Dec. 3.
“We understood New York was trying to cover themselves and get assurances from the doctor they picked. But we felt confident all this time,” said Margarito’s co-manager Sergio Diaz.
“Evidence has been introduced, including an affidavit from the applicant himself, detailing the rehabilitation steps taken to ensure that all of the rules of the commission will be followed,” Torres said. “After due consideration of the evidence of rehabilitation the commission finds the issuance of a license to the applicant not to be contrary to the best interests of boxing.”
“Further, following the thorough examination performed by Dr. Goldstein and his testimony that it is his opinion that the condition of Mr. Margarito’s eye is such that he is fit to be in the ring, the commission rules that Mr. Margarito’s petition for licensure in New York is granted.”
Moretti, who was at Tuesday’s meeting with Top Rank president Todd duBoef, and Margarito’s attorneys, David Moroso and Daniel Petrocelli, said they were all pleased with the commission vote.
“The tension in the room, you could cut it with a knife,” he said. “I’m drained because all Todd and I wanted, and what all of us wanted, was for this fight to happen in New York because it’s important for the sport. You have a Madison Square Garden that is almost sold out — and I bet it will be sold out in the next day or two — with electricity running through it. If we had to move the show, it wouldn’t have had the same impact. Just the fact that we got the license and it came down to the 11th and half hour, it’s unreal.”
Said Diaz, “It’s been a real pain in the neck but it was something we had to go through. We couldn’t run. Antonio has been fighting for this. There wasn’t anything any of us were trying to hide about his injury. We were open to any kind of exam.”
Arum was glad the saga was over.
“I think you got to commend the commission that they were thoughtful and deliberative and that having Margarito fly in to be examined by a doctor designated by them, while an inconvenience, I think was something that was good to do because you can have doctors opining about this and that, but if they don’t examine the patient you can’t get a full feel,” Arum said. “That being said, the criticism I have is why wasn’t this done before the press conference (to announce the fight) in September? One way or another it would alleviated all the problems.
“If he had passed at that time none of this would have occurred. If not, we would have moved on to another state because we felt that having had him treated by Crandall, the leading (eye) doctor in the country, maybe the world, and having a retinal specialist check him out, morally we were on the high ground. We believed his eye was as good as anyone’s based on Crandall’s treatment.”
