“MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR MARGARITO” — Thousands of fans turn out to meet three-time world champion Antonio Margarito in Dallas,Texas today at the Tamale Festival. Margarito takes on Superstar Manny Pacquiao on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium.

“Team Pacquiao bus ready to roll” — Superstar Manny Pacquiao’s custom Team Pacquiao bus rolls into Las Vegas Wednesday for its first preview before heading to Texas. Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View

Photos bu Chris Farina / Top Rank

Three-time world champion Antonio Margarito(R) and trainer Robert Garcia(L) hit the mitts in preparation for Margarito’s upcoming mega fight against superstar Manny Pacquiao on November 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Superstar Manny Pacquiao hits the double end bag at the Wildcard Boxing Club Monday. Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, former Middleweight champion has pulled out of his November 13th fight with Brian Vera that was supposed to highlight the undercard of the the Manny Pacquiao – Antonio Margarito Super Welterweight title clash with a rib injury.

Pavlik’s manager Cameron Dunkin said the reason was a rib injury. When asked if it had anything to do with Pavlik’s ongoing alcohol problem, he declined to answer.

Trainer Jack Loew also addressed the issue with ESPN.com, saying, “Since we’ve been back [in Pavlik’s hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, from training camp in Pennsylvania], I have not seen Kelly do anything wrong … In camp, I was with him 24 hours a day. Now that we are back, I’m not.”

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was told by Jack Loew that he had a rib injury a few days ago and might not be able to fight, and then he confirmed it to me [Monday] morning,” Dunkin said. “I’m heartbroken, I’m devastated, I’m sick to my stomach.

“This was such a great opportunity for Kelly, to be at Cowboys Stadium in front of who knows how many fans in a fun fight on a great show, a great event. I could go on and on.”

“It’s a day-by-day thing,” Dunkin said. “I spoke to Kelly. He said he’s hurt. We’re all sick about it.”

When asked if had anything to do with alcohol issues, Dunkin said, “I can’t say. I’m not there.”

Loew said Pavlik hurt the right side of his ribcage hitting the pads two weeks ago.

“He threw a punch and hurt it when we were doing pads,” Loew said. “We didn’t say anything. He still sparred (Oct. 23), but we just didn’t go to the body. Monday [Oct. 25] we went to New York for the [Tuesday] media lunch and when we came home he said it was too sore.

“He had a cortisone shot put in and it was still no better,” Loew said. “Thursday he came into the gym and he was still sore and we decided that was it. I won’t put him in there when he’s injured. He said he’s injured and the doctor said it’s very tender and that it was probably the cartilage. I gotta believe the doctor. I do have to believe Kelly’s ribs are extremely sore.”

“We’ve heard the report about the rib injury and we’re getting it confirmed,” promoter Bob Arum said. “If that’s the case, we’ll move Brandon onto Nov. 13. If Kelly can’t fight, he can’t fight, whatever the reason is.”

“Kelly realized this was a big fight for him,” Loew said, “but he didn’t want to go into a fight with a kid like Brian Vera, who will swing for the home run every time, if he wasn’t 100 percent. I don’t think we wanted to take a shot against anybody and take a chance of losing because of the rib injury and blow anything bigger or better out there. Nobody else is as disappointed as me.”

Photo by Claudia Bocanegra

Superstar boxer and Filipino congressman Manny Pacquiao(R) attends a rally for US Senator Harry Reid,D-Nevada(L) at Orr Middle School in Las Vegas Friday. Reid is running for re-election against Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

The irresistible story about whether Manny Pacquiao is out-of-shape, or out-of-focus, or more politician than pugilist is either setting the stage for a monumental upset in a loss to Antonio Margarito or masterful spin in the promotional wizardry exercised by Bob Arum.

The guess is all of the above and maybe more. There’s nothing new about Pacquiao and distractions. If anything, they’ve become inseparable. Pacquiao almost seems to be energized by familiar chaos that surrounds him like a human typhoon.

It’s fair to wonder whether the storm will reach a tipping point and overwhelm the Filipino Congressman on Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium against a bigger man who used to be called The Tornado and is anxious to prove he doesn’t need illegal hand wraps to be one all over again.

The hand-wrap controversy, which has haunted Margarito since a loss to Shane Mosley 22 months ago, has been shoved into the background. Glovegate is an afterthought and Arum made sure of it with his trip a couple of weeks ago to the Philippines for a look at Pacquiao’s training camp. The story’s emphasis shifted subtly, yet unmistakably onto the star, Pacquiao, and away from the controversy, Margarito, when Arum warned the Filipino that he was in danger of losing if he didn’t work harder. The next day, Arum said all was well. Pacquiao looked good.

With his early warning, Arum accomplished a couple of tasks. He motivated Pacquiao and he ensured that the attention moves toward and stays on the biggest attraction. That’s where it belongs. Pacquiao makes the money. Talk about a marquee fighter in a battle with distractions is as old as Muhammad Ali. It’s compelling enough to invest in pay-per-view. But controversy over what, when and if Margarito knew about altered wraps and whether he should be allowed to fight in Texas after a denial in California is just buzz-kill.

Intrigue about Pacquiao’s readiness gained momentum at the very moment he set foot at LAX Sunday. That’s when trainer Freddie Roach told the media that the Filipino part of the training camp was the worst he had ever endured.

Trainers, of course, are paid to worry. Roach sounded as if he were relieved to be away from Pacquiao’s many commitments and desire to stay close to his newfound position in the Filipino Congress. He blew off for a day to visit Filipino President Benigno Aquino. Roach also told reporters that Pacquiao told him that he missed his job. Pacquiao’s comment to Roach is curious, to be sure. If he had not been so good for so long at his job in the ring, he wouldn’t have one in politics. In the political ring, misplaced priorities are an argument. Against Margarito, they’re a loss.

If priorities are in fact misplaced, there are questions — further intrigue — about whether Pacquiao has enough to time to put them back in order. In comments during media day Wednesday at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, Roach sounded as if two-to-three weeks were enough. Yet within a week after leaving the Philippines, Pacquiao planned to be back on the campaign trail for a quick trip Friday to Las Vegas where he is scheduled to appear with Nevada Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat and majority leader, who is a tough run against Tea Party darling Sharron Angle.

Just a couple days after Roach told the media that there were no politicians around to take Pacquiao away from the Wild Card Gym, the trainer has another reason to worry. But Arum, Senator Reid’s friend and loyal supporter, can’t be worried at all. Otherwise, Pacquiao wouldn’t be taking this trip in support of a fellow politician who might be in bigger trouble than he will be against Margarito.

All options still on the mat

Henry Cejudo, a freestyle-wrestling gold medalist at the 2008 Olympics and one of the best stories at the Beijing Games, is 2-0 as an amateur boxer. Cejudo, who began training alongside Top Rank prospect Jose Benavidez, Jr., at Central Boxing near downtown Phoenix not long after Beijing’s closing ceremonies, won his second amateur bout in a surprise appearance a week ago at a tournament during the Arizona State Fair.

Cejudo, who won his boxing debut during a smoker at Central, has told the wrestling media that he probably will return for another shot at Olympic gold at the 2012 Games in London. But boxing, which will perfect his punching know how, might also be one way of jumping into mixed-martial arts. That opportunity looms, especially since Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana White announced Thursday that the UFC will merge with World Extreme Cagefighting.

The merger will include the addition of two weight classes, 135 pounds and 145. There also are plans for a 125-pound division. Cejudo, who grew up as a boxing fan, won Olympic gold at 55 kilograms, 121.25 pounds.

Notes, quotes
· Kelly Pavlik trainer Jack Loew is relieved that weight won’t be the biggest opponent when the former middleweight champion tries to resurrect his career against journeyman Brian Vera on the Pacquiao-Margarito undercard at catch weight, 164 pounds. “We were burning this kid out,’’ Loew said Tuesday of training before Pavlik loss to Sergio Martinez. “We were training four or five times a day and it was because of the weight. We trained more for the weight than we did for Martinez.’’
· Most of the talk is about Pacquiao-Margarito, but the Fight of the Year might happen on the Saturday before Nov. 13 when featherweights Rafael Marquez and Juan Manuel Lopez tangle on Nov. 6 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Arum, Lopez’ promoter, called it a Fight of the Year candidate. There was no argument Monday from Lopez. “My expectation is the same, that it will be a Fight-of-the-Year-type candidate,’’ said Lopez, who also expects the bout to end in a later-round knockout.

Photo Chris Farina / Top Rank

Three-time world champion Antonio Margarito talks with reporters during a packed media day at the Fortune Gym in Hollywood Thursday. Margarito takes on superstar Manny Pacquiao on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Superstar Manny Pacquiao shadow boxes during a packed media day at the Wildcard Boxing Club in Los Angeles Wednesday. Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View

Photos by Chris Farina . Top Rank

Boxing doesn’t have seasons, or much boxing either, anymore, but it does have pay-per-view events that mark artificial seasons. These happen late in winter, spring, summer and fall. This year’s late-winter and late-summer offerings were weak and dreadful, respectively. This year’s late-fall season kicked-off Saturday with the first episode of “24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito.”

If you’re not thinking that it would be better to read a column about boxing than one about television about boxing, you should be. To such a concern I offer the merest anecdote:

One summer, after suffering through a semester of Eng102 at Arizona State University I happened on its professor in the ASU Rec Center and told him what I thought of his class. And he replied, “Boring to you? I had to teach the damned thing.”

We make a mistake if we discount the need for boxing on television, though, and that is why we take a look at HBO’s “24/7” program and its effect. Much as we make of competitive undercard matches and b-side fighters in main events, network researchers snicker at our concerns because they know what we do not believe: Once the a-side fighter is in place, the success of a pay-per-view is determined by “24/7.”

Mayweather-Mosley in May was a more compelling spectacle than Pacquiao-Clottey in March, as we all knew it would be, but not twice as compelling. The difference in pay-per-view sales these shows garnered, if those numbers are to be believed, was roughly 100 percent. That is, Mayweather-Mosley sold about twice as many pay-per-view buys as Pacquiao-Clottey. One had “24/7.” One did not.

Look, “24/7” is not for you, the serious fan. It is for the wife or father of a casual fan. It is about helping a casual fan attain $50 of permission from his spouse or guardian by offering variable plotlines. That’s how Pacquiao’s puppy featured prominently in “24/7” before the fight with Miguel Cotto; that’s why we now know Margarito’s wife hates her husband’s flatulence.

Super fights need that sort of promotion today because there are no longer a million serious boxing fans in the United States. Boxing lost most of its fans when it left network television, though it still pretends otherwise. It lost more fans when it put an additional purchase price on meaningful fights. And it lost another healthy chunk this year when it promised something real, failed, then delivered, instead, something broken.

Which gets me thinking about Mexico. Today, having backed away from the failed American model, Mexico has great fights on basic cable. It’s a new thing. Mexicans are embracing it enthusiastically. When I talk to folks in Tamaulipas or Jalisco, now, I hear about fights in Germany and Poland I did not know about and could not have seen if I had. Beyond that enthusiasm, though, is a coming sadness.

Boxing did not suffer too much when American kids could no longer watch it on public airwaves. That is, American boxing suffered, suffered terribly, but the sport wasn’t ruined. Because of prosperity, Americans were destined to supply boxing’s audience, not its participants, soon, anyway. Not so with Mexico.

Boxing was not on Mexico’s public airwaves for most of the last decade because of the same shortsighted greed that afflicted, and afflicts, things here in the U.S. Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera, in fact, cites the renewed availability of boxing in Mexican homes as a reason for his comeback: None of his countrymen saw his glory days. Unless you were a Mexican with a satellite dish or access to a sports bar that had one, then, you probably gave up on boxing sometime after 2001.

Ten years is a long time. Imagine a Mexican who turns 20 this year; he’s spent half his life without boxing. Now imagine that Mexican was to be the next Barrera. Whatever else he may be, he’s not the next Barrera anymore.

Today, we are told Saul Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. are among Mexico’s greatest young fighters. The troublesome thing is that it might be so. Expect just as many Mexican “greats” to be fed to us by promoters in the next decade as we had in the last, but don’t expect many actual great fighters out of Mexico for 10 years to come.

Oh, enough of the dreary prognostications already! Very well. Back to pay-per-view season.

The first episode of “24/7” was better than it could have been. There were the same old overwrought and overproduced elements, sure. Freddie Roach’s pursuit of anonymity in a mall – while accoutered in bright Team Pacquiao garb and followed by a camera crew – was the best example. But anyway.

The first episode dealt fairly with the issue of Margarito’s hand wraps. It reported the facts of the case; the discovery of the pads, the result of the California State Athletic Commission’s investigation, the revocation of Margarito’s license, and the restoration of Margarito’s license in Texas. Then it gave Margarito his chance to convince potential buyers “he didn’t know” – that he still “doesn’t know!” (not in subtitled translation) – anything was wrong with his wraps the night he faced Shane Mosley.

And then “24/7” went to Roach casually saying Margarito is lying before showing Pacquiao, in an uncommon bit of satire, pantomiming Margarito’s path to obliviousness – complete with covering his eyes with one hand while extending the other to an imaginary trainer. Yes, Margarito’s explanation remains, in the strictest sense of the word, unbelievable.

But he still won’t make much of a villain. He has a sleepy-eyed humility that makes him pretty hard to hate. He is not going to cut it as a Mexican hero, either, though; wherever they found those extras for the car-wash plot, Margarito now cuts things a little too fine, in both beard and palliation, to be a working-class hero.

But this is good as it gets right now. Take it or leave it.

Bart Barry can be reached at bbarry@15rounds.com. Additionally, his book, “The Legend of Muhammad Ali,” co-written with Thomas Hauser, can be purchased here.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

“MANNY HITS LA” — Superstar Manny Pacquiaoarrives in Los Angeles Saturday night to continue training for his upcoming mega fight against Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito on November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

PHOTOS BY CHRIS FARINA / TOP RANK

Cowboys Stadium is not in Dallas or anywhere near Grapevine, Tex., home of the Gaylord Texan – official hotel of the Dallas Cowboys. The stadium is in Arlington, a half hour west of Dallas and a half hour south of Grapevine and one parking lot from Rangers Ballpark. Let’s pause for a moment to celebrate stadiums named after teams that play in them and not corporations that don’t.

There. That’s the end of homage to the House that Jerry Built. Manny Pacquiao’s last prizefight was about seeing him in Cowboys Stadium. That trick won’t work twice.

Pacquiao hasn’t changed. He’s perhaps more of an icon in the Philippines for having won a congressional election since his March fight with Joshua Clottey, but saying Pacquiao is more of an icon in the Philippines is like calling him “perfecter.” Which means that for Pacquiao’s fight on Nov. 13 to succeed, Tijuana’s Antonio Margarito is going to have to draw better than Ghana’s Clottey did. Piece of cake – preferably tres leches – right?

Not so fast. If Spanish-language emails coming to bbarry@15rounds.com can be believed, not all of Mexico is buying the Margarito line. They have not forgiven or forgotten. And they are right not to.

If you are reading this, you have considered and reconsidered the Margarito case. I don’t plan to persuade you of his innocence or guilt; I’m too conflicted about it, myself, to do a creditable job. But I will be in Cowboys Stadium next month and wonder if watching someone wrestle with his own ambivalence mightn’t prove cathartic to you.

I worry about the precedent Margarito will set in November: Break the rules (wittingly or otherwise), receive banishment, go into exile, miss a fight, take a tune-up match, shop for a sympathetic commission, enjoy your richest payday. It’s obviously unfair, but adults don’t whine about unfairness.

It is troublesome too, though, because this precedent begs for a copycat effort. Why shouldn’t some other fighter, or his trainer, try it?

Still, Margarito will not fight in November with any foreign substances smeared across his hand wraps because Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach will be an incredible pain in the ass during the hand-wrapping that HBO’s cameras will cover like it’s part of the undercard. But here’s something to consider.

If we take Margarito at his word – that he was oblivious of his trainer’s transgressions – we’re left to determine when Margarito’s trainer began tampering with wraps. Margarito cannot help us answer that question because he recused himself from the case by expressing complete ignorance of his trainer’s comportment, numerous times before the California State Athletic Commission.

In other words, was Margarito ever honestly better than the 10-3 journeyman he began his career as?

Well, if the answer is no, we’re in for a bloodletting to make Pacquiao’s unraveling of Ricky Hatton look civilized.

Boxing is a theater that requires suspension of disbelief much as any other. Let us suspend our disbelief, then, and imagine Margarito’s hands were coddled in the softest of gauze and tape the evening he beat Miguel Cotto in 2008 and th’t that same Margarito will be in Arlington four Saturdays from now.

Manny Pacquiao is far too quick for Margarito to find early. Margarito will lope forward, hands low and wide, smiling as Pacquiao hits him 50 times every round. Pacquiao will have spent weeks sparring before Freddie Roach, who probably will have stopped the action each time Pacquiao’s back touches the ropes. Pacquiao, in other words, should come off those ropes like they were an electric fence. And Margarito is none too effective in the center of the ring.

Why not? Because Margarito has a signature crossover move that requires space and time. It goes like this. He puts his jab out to start the combo in motion. He brings his right foot forward with his right cross, which is a loopy, corralling punch thrown to trigger the left uppercut/hook hybrid. Then from a southpaw stance, he pulls on his right shoulder and launches his left fist upwards, with all his being behind it.

But Pacquiao is three things that foil this crossover: Small, quick and southpaw. He will be able to parry the looping cross and move away from it by pivoting quickly on his lead right foot in a tight circle that makes Margarito’s hybrid punch wider than usual. Margarito will hit mostly air, turn leftwards and taste a left cross or four. And he’ll be down 60-54 on all three judges’ cards when the seventh round commences.

But he will not be discouraged.

He will be the largest man Pacquiao has faced. He will be a man who fights with a special kind of resentment. He will be outclassed but not outwilled. And he will weigh more than Joshua Clottey did in March – when the Ghanaian proved that if a welterweight is hell-bent on not getting hurt by Pacquiao he needn’t be.

Margarito has a chance because of physics. Pacquiao’s power above 147 pounds is unproved. Boxing history is rife with great fighters who went one weight class too high. Margarito’s relentlessness would not be enough if he were Pacquiao’s size. But he is not. He is much bigger.

One of two things is likely to happen in November. Margarito never finds Pacquiao, chasing him in hopeless circles round the center of the ring and collecting the 36-minute beating so many Americans, and Mexicans too, believe he deserves. Or Margarito finds Pacquiao late in the fight and makes it a dramatic spectacle indeed.

So I ask myself, would I go to this match if it were in Las Vegas and not my home state of Texas? I think so, but I’m not sure. Would I buy it on pay-per-view, otherwise? Yes. Should you come see this match in Texas? Yes. Should you buy it on pay-per-view, otherwise? I think so, but I’m not sure.

Bart Barry can be reached at bbarry@15rounds.com

LAS VEGAS, NEV (October 14, 2010) – Top Rank announced today that international television sports reporter INÉS SAINZ has been signed to provide daily fight week reports and features and be part of the international broadcast team for the Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito World Super Welterweight Championship. Pacquiao vs. Margarito will take place, Saturday, November 13 at the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX and will be broadcast live on pay-per-view in the U.S.

Sainz, a sports reporter for TV Azteca in México and Azteca America in the U.S., will utilize her vast experience interviewing sports personalities from around the globe in producing fresh and insightful reports from the fighters’ camps throughout fight week, as well as live reports from the official press conferences, media workouts, the official weigh-in, all of which will be available to online portals as well as television stations and networks via satellite feeds. Sainz will also be reporting on the pre-fight festivities during fight night at Cowboys Stadium as well as part of the fight’s international broadcasting team .

“Inés will be a valuable addition in providing sports fans unique stories on the fighters and the event during fight week and the fight broadcast itself that we have never had before,” said Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank, which is promoting Pacquiao vs. Margarito, in association with MP Promotions, Cowboys Stadium and Tecate. “Inasmuch as she is bilingual and has the experience of covering major sporting events worldwide and has interviewed the top athletes in those events, she will help enhance our coverage of Pacquiao vs. Margarito and attract a wider audience to the sport of boxing. Top Rank feels very fortunate to have her for this event.”

Sainz, who holds graduate degrees in tax law and sports business administration, and is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, has covered major sports events that span the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the past six Super Bowls and the ATP’s World Tour Masters. She was also an integral part of TV Azteca’s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa. Sainz also hosts TV Azteca’s popular interview program Dxtips.

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Remaining Tickets to Pacquiao vs. Margarito are priced at $700, $500, $300, $200, $100, and $50, and can be purchased in-person at the Cowboys Stadium ticket office in Arlington, or by calling Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com.

For Pacquiao vs. Margarito fight week updates, log on to www.toprank.com .

Undefeated Welterweight Mike Jones talks about his November 13th fight with Jesus Soto Karass on the Manny Pacquiao – Antonio Margarito Undercard

Watch Mike Jones in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito two day Dallas excursion is captured by Top Rank’s Chris Farina starting with a visit to a Dallas Cowboys pre season game that was followed up by the press conference to announced their November 13 fight

With all due apologies to T.S. Eliot and Carlos Acevedo, boxing is the cruelest art. But it is also, strictly speaking, a series of assaults and batteries— with the law suspended for the moment between two consenting adults who wish to prove a point.

As Antonio Margarito, suspended from boxing by the California State Athletic Commission, prepares now to face Manny Pacquiao in Texas, it seems worthwhile to spend a minute or two considering the law as it relates to boxing, and how it didn’t relate to Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo. I say this because I’m still not entirely sure why at least Capetillo has not faced criminal charges. More specifically, assault with a deadly weapon.

Before his fight with “Sugar” Shane Mosley for the Welterweight Championship in California, Mosley’s trainer discovered what was later found by the California State Athletic Commission to be a “plaster-like substance” on the knuckle pads of both of Margarito’s hand wraps. The knuckle pads were seized by the Commission and Margarito’s hands were re-wrapped in time for him to be beaten to a pulp by Shane Mosley. No harm, no foul? Not at criminal law. If you shoot at someone and miss, the law doesn’t reward you with a free ride for bad aim. Attempt is a crime.

As a disclaimer, although I’ve passed the New York Bar I have not taken the California Bar and have no intention of doing so. But much of law reduces to Common Law, and despite some terminology differences and statute interpretation particular to each state, a general analysis is possible. So here we go.

The Law

Assault and battery are both tortious offenses (i.e., you can be sued for doing it if the other party experiences damages) and criminal offenses (i.e., the state can press charges against you for doing it). In some instances it can be both.

Within the consent of the boxers to not file suit, and the consent of the state to not press charges, are the agreed upon rules. Between the boxers this is contract, between the state and the boxers this is law. Which is to say, all that stands between boxers and lawsuits and jail time and fines are their contracts with each other and the rules of boxing. One contracts to fight another man under certain conditions (e.g., at a certain weight, in a certain size ring, wearing certain size gloves and under a certain set of rules). To go outside the contract in a big way (“a material breach”), is to lose the protection of the contract and, perhaps, the protection (or the suspension of the suspension) of the law.

Notable examples of boxers who have gone outside the rules and have been criminally punished are Luis Resto and his trainer, Panama Lewis, who both saw the inside of a prison for taking the stuffing out of Resto’s gloves in a bout with the once promising, but that night beaten and virtually blinded Billy Collins, Jr. ; and James “The Harlem Hammer” Butler, who, after losing a decision in 2001 punched his then celebrating opponent with a taped but gloveless fist. Occurring after the final bell, Butler was led out of the arena in handcuffs and charged in New York with felony assault to the second degree.

In both of these instances, the parties went outside both the contract and the rules in a manner sufficient to trigger both the ability of the injured party to sue and the state to press charges. Collins had agreed to fight Resto with certain ounce gloves. In ripping the stuffing out of the gloves, Lewis and Resto voided the contract and, in violating the rules in so egregious a way, lost the protection of the law and committed assault and battery, which in New York was charged as a type of “Assault” as well as possession of a deadly weapon—the gloves. “The Harlem Hammer” punched without gloves and outside the allotted time of the bout, no longer protected by contract or rules.

Both offenders in these cases caused damage to their opponents; generally, one must have damages capable of redress to sue. Because no one was struck or threatened with the “plaster-like” hardened fists and Mosley ultimately won the bout, there are no damages (except perhaps to Margarito’s reputation and a generalized damage to the sport of boxing) —thus no lawsuit.

But some further explanation of just what assault and battery means in a criminal context might be in order. Different states use the words differently, but California essentially follows the old Common Law form. Without getting into degrees and “aggravated” status, according to the California Penal Code Sect. 240. “An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.” (emphasis added).

According to CPC Sect. 242. “A battery is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another.”

The classic definition of battery is “the use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact.”

Which is to say, generally, that assault is the attempt and battery is the actual contact. Or, germane to this discussion: you can assault someone without actually hitting him. And unlike in the lawsuit context, you need not have inflicted damage on another.

The last weapon in our legal arsenal for the moment regards just that, weapons and/or dangerous instrumentalities:

CPC 245. (a) (1) Any person who commits an assault upon the person of another with a deadly weapon or instrument other than a firearm or by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, or in a county jail for not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.

Arguably, outside of the protection of the law in the ring, a boxer’s fists alone might qualify under this statute for the increased penalty. But certainly, a set of brass knuckles would qualify under the statute as either/or. Having said that, I do not see much legal distinction as to impact between brass knuckles and plaster of paris knuckle pads in a boxing match. And remember, you don’t actually have to hit someone to have “assaulted” him.

And there it is—call it what you will, attempted battery or “assault with a deadly weapon.” Loading boxing gloves with “a plaster-like substance” in anticipation of their use in a boxing match would seem to qualify. The only thing that seemingly stood in the way of a criminal beating that night was Sugar Shane Mosley’s observant trainer and the time it would have taken to walk into the ring.

Proof

But of course, in the criminal context one must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Not any doubt, but a reasonable doubt. The Commission revocation hearing used the “clear and convincing evidence to a reasonable certainty” standard— which is more than preponderance of the evidence (i.e., 51%), and less than beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e., beyond the reasonable doubt of a reasonable man).

In addition, however, in the criminal context, generally, one must show intent (sometimes “recklessness” or “negligence” will do, but in “attempt crimes” intent is generally the touchstone). Intent in this matter would essentially mean that Margarito and/or his trainer knew that the hand wraps had been exposed to a hardening agent, or as the CSAS found, “a plaster-like substance,” and proceeded to go forward to fight.

The Defense

Not knowing is a defense. But just saying you “didn’t know” is not enough to dispense with intent—it is a question for the jury (or judge, if there is no jury) to decide. It is what is called “a question of fact.” The answer or decision is based upon the credibility of the accused and the surrounding evidence. In the case of Panama Lewis and Luis Resto the court found that despite their assertions—they had to have known. And again, they both went to prison in addition to being banned from boxing.

Hardened knuckle pads, however, are not the same as gloves with the stuffing ripped out. And more than a few reputable boxing trainers, including Freddie Roach, Emanuel Steward, and Nazeem Richardson—the trainer who actually discovered the hardened knuckle pads—have publicly stated that it would be possible for a trainer to place hardened pads within a boxer’s hand wraps without the boxer knowing it. It is also possible, because the knuckle pads aren’t necessarily prepared in front of the boxer (according to the CSAS Capetillo told conflicting stories about where he prepared the knuckle pads) that any treatment of the pads could not seen by the boxer.

That sound you just heard was reasonable doubt creeping in as to Margarito.

But having said that, the CSAS found Margarito to not be a credible witness. According to the Commission :
“…the Commission found Mr. Margarito’s claims that he was unaware of the foreign and illegal substance found in his fist wraps and that it was entirely the fault of his trainer, to not be credible. In short, by assuming no responsibility or knowledge of wrongdoing, Petitioner’s testimony at the hearing was evasive, inherently improbable, in most respects, and, in certain specific instances, disingenuous in the extreme.”
They may also have mocked his shoes.

But part of the Commission’s finding was based on their belief that an experienced professional boxer could not have not known that his hand wraps contained knuckle pads with a plaster-like substance on them. At least that part of the finding would seemingly become suspect when subjected to the expert trainer’s views.
Capetillo is, perhaps, another story. The Commission characterized his testimony as follows:

“Respondent testified that he was nervous and that he used the wrong knuckle pads in both of Margarito’s hand wraps. Respondent testified that the adulterated gauze pads must have been thrown into his trainer’s bag by another boxer during a training session at Respondent’s gym.”

“Respondent testified inconsistently as to when he prepared the knuckle pads used in wrapping Margarito’s hands stating both that the pads had been prepared in advance and also that they were prepared at Staples Center.”

The Commission then stated:
“Respondent testified that he made an innocent mistake and did not cheat but instead twice reached into his trainer’s bag and twice grabbed the wrong knuckle pad. Although the Commission does not find Respondent’s testimony on this issue to be credible even if Respondent’s acts were the result of a mistake such a mistake would still violate Commission Rule 323 and would still bring discredit to boxing pursuant to Rule 390.

Because of the serious physical consequences which could have resulted to the other boxer from the use of boxing gloves loaded with illegal knuckle pads, the appropriate penalty is revocation.”

The Commission is not alone in finding Capetillo less than credible. Manuel Steward stated:

“When I get in the dressing room before a fight, one of the first things I do is make two knuckle pads and put them on the table. I don’t put them in my bag. I leave them out on the table, and so does every other trainer I know of.

So, I have a hard time believing that Capetillo took the wrong knuckle pads out of his bag by mistake.”
The Evidence

And what did the California Commission find as to the knuckle pads? Upon physical examination:

“The thin gauze pads were determined, after examination by the Commission, to have been adulterated with a white plaster-like substance.”

And by laboratory analysis? The Commission states:

“One adulterated pad was sent to the California Department of Justice Forensic Laboratory in Sacramento where it was examined and would be processed for testing. The pad was photographed under 6x magnification. The photographs show a white flaky substance on the pad and within the interstices of the gauze itself.” (See photo above and think about what gauze looks like—white squares with nothing in them).

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE BUREAU OF FORENSIC SERVICES
SACRAMENTO CRIMINALISTICS LABORATORY
4949 Broadway, Room F-201 Sacramento, CA 95820
Phone No. (916) 227-3777 FAX No.• (916) 227-3776

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE EXAMINATION REPORT
Suspect: Margarita, Antonio; Capetillo, Javier Offense: None
Victim: State of California Offense Date: January 24, 2009

March 19,2009

SUMMARY
Calcium and sulfur, two elements found in plaster of Paris, were found on the submitted gauze pad
EVIDENCE
The following evidence was submitted to this laboratory by Athletic Inspector Che Guevara of the
California Department of Consumer Affairs on January 17,2009:
Item # 1 Description
gauze pad
EXAMINATION
The submitted gauze pad was examined using a stereomioroscope. A white solid material was seen
adhering to and between the gauze fibers. Calcium and sulfur were detected in samples of the white solid using an X-ray fluorescence [XRF] spectrometer. The elements calcium, sulfur and oxygen are found in plaster of Paris [calcium sulfate -CaS04J. These three elements are also found in substances’ other than plaster. Oxygen is not detectable by XRF. (CSAS, P.27-28, PDF)
Conclusion
So why again is at least Capetillo not being charged?
The California State Athletic Commission report, findings and briefs can be found here.
http://www.dca.ca.gov/csac/about_us/meetings/20100818_agenda.pdf

Former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito talks about about his November 13 showdown with Manny Pacquiao

Watch Antonio Margarito Media roundtable in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

World renowned trainer Freddie Roach discusses the big November 13 showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito

Watch Freddie Roach Media roundtable in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Pound for Pound king Manny Pacquiao talks to the media about his November 13 fight with Antonio Margarito

Watch Manny Pacquiao media Roundtable in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito meet the media in New New York city to announce their November 13th fight

Watch Pacquiao – Margarito New York Press Conference Part 1 in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
PART 2

Watch Pacquiao – Margarito Press Conference Part 2 in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
PART 3

Watch Pacquiao – Margarito New York Press Conference part 3 in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Superstar Manny Pacquiao and three-time world champion Antonio Margarito pose during a press conference in New York for their national press tour Wednesday. Pacquiao and Margarito will do battle, November 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. This telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Superstar Manny Pacquiao and three-time world champion Antonio Margarito pose during the press conference to kick off their national press tour with stops in New York and Dallas. Pacquiao and Margarito will do battle, November 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. This telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Superstar Manny Pacquiao arrives in Los Angeles Monday night for his big Tuesday press conference in Beverly Hills,Ca. On November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas, Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Dan Rafael of espn.com reported that disgraced former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito received a boxing License in Texas and a proposed fight with Manny Pacquiao will now go forward on November 13th at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX.

“After a thorough review of his application it was determined Mr. Margarito met the requirements of the Texas Combative Sports Act and Rules,” William Kuntz, the executive director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, said in a statement.

“I want to thank the state of Texas for granting me a boxing license which enables me to continue my passion for the sport of boxing in the United States,” Margarito said in a statement. “I have dedicated my life to giving the fans of the sport entertainment and excitement. On Nov. 13, this great opportunity will ultimately be fulfilled when I battle Manny Pacquiao.”

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, on vacation in France, was happy with the news.

“For me, it was like a terrible nightmare, this whole thing, and now the sun is shining,” Arum told ESPN.com. “I really believe that it will be a very competitive fight. One guy is much bigger and stronger [Margarito] and the other guy [Pacquiao] is quicker and hits with both hands. It will be a fascinating fight to watch.”

“I was never a big fan of the ABC, but they were totally honorable and very responsible in this whole situation,” Arum said. “They made us go back to California, which to me didn’t make sense. But we did it because they requested it and then they issued a letter saying any state was free to license him. I really believed that once we followed the ABC road map that we were going to be OK.”

“Based on the review of the above information I have authorized the issuance of a license to Mr. Margarito,” Kuntz said.

“I think the crowd will be much bigger and Jerry [Jones] thinks it will also,” Arum said. “The last fight was not during football season. This one is, and we have all the Dallas Cowboys assets they use during the season to help this time. We have a lot of stuff that we didn’t have for the Clottey fight. With Margarito being Hispanic, and this is North Texas, which has a huge Hispanic population, that will make this even bigger.”

Jones said: “This is a good one because we know Margarito — with our fan base, in our area — if we do the fight, then it’ll be a big draw.”

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that disgraced former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito applied for a boxing license in Texas just after he was denied a license in California.

“We have received a faxed application on behalf of Margarito,” Said Susan Stanford who is the public information officer for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. “But a faxed application is an incomplete application.”

Apparently Maragrito did not include the $20 fee for the application.

“We understand there is a hard-copy application with a check in the mail,” she said.

Margarito needs a license in Texas so Top Rank promoter Bob Arum can move forward with his plans for Margarito to face Manny Pacquiao for a vacant junior middleweight title on Nov. 13 on HBO PPV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, site of Pacquiao’s dominant decision against Joshua Clottey on March 13.

The ABC issued a memo on Thursday reiterating to state commissions that Margarito had fulfilled his obligations.

“At this time Mr. Margarito has fulfilled his obligations per the ABC [which was to appear before the CSAC before applying for licensure to another state/tribal commission in the United States] and thus he is now free to pursue licensure with any ABC member commission,” the ABC’s statement read. “There is nothing under the federal law that would prohibit consideration for licensure. The ABC would hope that each ABC member commission would examine the facts that have been laid out by the CSAC and weigh those facts in determining if Mr. Margarito should indeed be licensed to compete in their jurisdiction.”

Stanford said once Margarito’s $20 check arrives, his application will be considered like any other fighter’s.

“We have licensing specialists that review it and all state laws and rules are considered,” she said. “If it meets the laws and rules, the license will be granted. But every application is taken on a case by case basis, and Margarito’s will be no different.”

“We don’t require a hearing,” she said. “We either grant it or deny. If it’s denied, the applicant has a right to a hearing if he asks for it.”

She said once full application requirements are with her department, the application would be ruled on “within 10 days.”

It was a show trial. Antonio Margarito had to show up in a procedural step that fulfilled, if not satisfied, bureaucratic protocol. The result was almost an after-thought. Margarito had no chance in California Wednesday. It’s a good thing he wasn’t applying for a driver’s license.

The California State Athletic Commission’s predictable denial of Margarito’s application for reinstatement of a boxing license might prove to be more significant for what he said instead of the one-sided, 5-1 decision against him.

In finally saying he didn’t know but should have known about irregular hand wraps before his loss in January, 2009 to Shane Mosley at Los Angeles Staples Center, Margarito accepted some responsibility, which figures to be the centerpiece of Top Rank’s attempt to get him licensed in Texas for a proposed bout on Nov. 13 with Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium in the Dallas metroplex.

“I am here to make an apology not only to the commission, but to the entire world for not knowing what was in those wrappings,” said Margarito, who for months refused to apologize for wraps loaded with inserts applied by former trainer Javier Capitello.

There is plenty of debate about what and when Margarito did or didn’t know. There is also no evidence. There’s only reasonable doubt. On that one, Margarito, a first-time offender, deserves benefit of the doubt, which by the way was granted to Mosley after his reported use of performance-enhancers as a BALCO customer before his rematch victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2003.

His chances at reinstatement of a license revoked on Feb. 11, 2009 had been trampled beyond repair by talk seven, eight months ago that he would attempt to get licensed in Texas for a bout on the undercard of Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium. Then, there were a couple of appearances before the Nevada Commission, which told Margarito to first go to California.

To the California commission, it looked as if he were executing an end-around in an attempted evasion of accountability. Margarito said the right things Wednesday, but the state’s regulators were going to make him pay anyway for trying to sidestep them. Hence, they slapped him with a denial that in at least one aspect was ridiculous. To wit:

According to state attorney Karen Chappelle, Margarito had illegally trained at Robert Garcia’s gym in Oxnard, Calif., for a victory on May 8 in Mexico. Margarito sparred without a California-issued permit mandatory for all boxers training in the state. Margarito said he didn’t know about that one, either. Other than lawyers and regulators, I’m not sure anybody else did mostly because it’s a rule seldom, if ever, enforced in any state without funding needed to enforce commission rules. To use that one as another reason for a Margarito denial is little bit like withholding a driver’s license because of jaywalking.

In Texas, however, Margarito will be one more step down protocol’s path and another step toward accepting accountability, which has been demanded repeatedly by media and fans in the court of public opinion. It’s an opinion that matters, perhaps more than any other. That was evident in questions and comments from commissioners at Wednesday’s hearing. Despite criticism of Margarito, even Chappelle seemed to like what she heard from the former welterweight champion.

“I think that Mr. Margarito came across as very sincere, which should do him well in the future,’’ Chappelle told Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The future looks a lot like Texas.

Gesta’s rise continues at Tucson’s Casino Del Sol

Lightweight Mercito Gesta (18-0-1, 8 KOs), called one of the best Filipino prospects by Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, figures to continue on an apparent arc to stardom tonight in Tucson at Casino Del Sol on TeleFurtura card against Mexican Genaro Trazancos (22-11-1, 13 KOs).

The 22-year-old Gesta hopes for a shot at interim World Boxing Organization champion Michael Katsidis, possibly next year. Against Trazancos, the Filipino lefthander has a chance to look very good. The 35-year-old Mexican has lost six of his last seven.

The Don Chargin-promoted card was scheduled for seven fights. A super-bantamweight bout featuring unbeaten Michael Franco (16-0, 11 KOs) of Riverside, Calif., versus Mexican Adolfo Landeros (20-14-1, 9 KOs) was canceled, because of an eye injury to Franco, a Riverside, Calif., prospect who is suffering from a torn retina. First bell is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (Arizona time).

Notes, anecdotes
· According to news reports of Wednesday’ hearing in California, attorney Daniel Petrocelli told the commission that Garcia will tape Margarito’s hands in the presence of the fighter “so that Antonio can personally oversee the procedure for himself.” Huh? It would be difficult, if not very painful, for Margarito to be anywhere but present.

· And De La Hoya capitalized on the Margarito denial to lobby for a third Juan Manuel Marquez-Pacquiao fight. It makes sense. Since Pacquiao’s rise to the top of the pound-for-pound debate, nobody has tested Pacquiao more than Marquez. Marquez might be the one fighter who can beat the Filipino Congressman. For the best, there’s always somebody, which is probably the reason Pacquiao won’t agree to a third fight with Marquez any time soon.

Former Welterweight world champion, Antonio Margarito was denied a boxing license in California by a vote of 5-1.

Margarito claimed he was unaware that he had was turned out to be a plaster like substance in his glove while being taped up for his January, 2009 bout with Shane Mosley in Los Angeles.

The commissioners cited lack of remorse on Margarito’s part as one of the key reasons for denying the former champ the license.

Maragrito did fight in his native Mexico as he scored a unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia on May 8th.

There have been reports that Margarito will fight Manny Pacquiao in Texas on November 13th with Texas willing to give the disgraced fighter an opportunity to fight in their state.

The Friday before last, Team Mayweather handed Bob Arum and Top Rank a bunch of lemons. Instead of trying to make lemonade, Arum passed the lemons off to boxing fans in the form of Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito.

Now it’s up to the boxing community to determine what to do with them.

During his now-infamous conference call, Arum made it clear that his intentions were to pursue fights with possible opponents other than Mayweather, specifically Miguel Cotto or Margarito.

Less than two weeks later the “Tijuana Tornado” emerged as the next opponent for the Filipino Congressman.

In fighting Pacquiao (51-3, 38 KO) on November 13, Margarito (38-6, 27 KO) is receiving a “hand-wrapped” gift from Arum and Top Rank. In taking care of his own, Arum is granting Margarito what will most likely amount to the biggest pay day of his career. He is awarding “Tony” the chance of a lifetime simply for fighting under the Top Rank banner.

During his conference call, responding to an inquiry about a potential Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight, Arum immediately dismissed the possibility.

“Tim Bradley is a tremendous fighter and he’s a great young man,” Arum said. “But the problem with a guy like Tim Bradley is that even though you and I know what a superb fighter he is, the public really doesn’t know.”

He continued, “The other promoters don’t really promote their fighters. They take money from HBO or Showtime or a little Indian casino and they think they’re doing the kid a big service. I’m not going to give them a free ride on the work we have done.”

That same logic applied to a question about a potential Paul Williams fight with Pacquiao.

“Paul Williams is a tremendous fighter – a great fighter, but he hasn’t been promoted correctly — he doesn’t have any following, can’t sell any tickets,” Arum said. “Nobody is financing the pay-per-view fight. On an HBO fight – HBO pays the money. I’m the one that’s financing the pay-per-view and don’t want to give anyone a free ride.”

Arum’s thinking, which in this specific case is reasonable, has ultimately left us with a mid-Autumn clash between Pacquiao and Margarito. It has also left us disappointed with the realization that a Mayweather-Pacquiao superfight won’t be taking place any time this calendar year.

It’s left us with a decision about what to do with these lemons.

It’s true that Margarito, or as many in the fistic community have comically renamed him, “Margacheato”, was caught with loaded hand-wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

It’s also true that he doesn’t deserve the big pay day that will come when he faces the world’s number one pound-for-pound boxer.

Margarito is a cheater who was caught and is still being punished. He is a fighter who, presumably, was willing to endanger the lives of his opponents for a win inside the ring.

He is still not licensed to prizefight in the United States ] and the last time most boxing fans saw him, he was being battered around the ring for nine rounds by Mosley.

So what are we to make of Pacquiao-Margarito?

Lemonade?

Let me try.

Margarito is a battle tested warrior. Having suffered early defeats in his career, Margarito had to work twice as hard to prove the crooked numbers in the loss column were due to the fact that he turned professional at the ripe young age of 15, not necessarily due to lack of skill.

After years of compiling win after win, Margarito fought his way to the top. He has held, at some point or another, the WBA, WBO, and IBF welterweight championships.

He walks through the best punches his opponents have to offer just so he can fire off a few of his own.

This past decade alone, Margarito has stopped Sergio Martinez, Antonio Diaz, and twice stopped Kermit Cintron.

He was awarded a decision over Joshua Clottey. He has battled in tough losses against Paul Williams and Daniel Santos, proving that even in defeat, he still possesses the heart of a true Mexican warrior.

He has fought in fights that looked like they belonged in bars, specifically the hellacious brawl with Miguel Cotto — a fight that left Cotto’s face almost unrecognizable.

Truth be told, plaster-wraps aside, Margarito is an entertaining fighter to watch.

To add to the fan-friendly style of Margarito is the always-entertaining Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao, the seven division world champion and current WBO welterweight champion, is the world’s number one pound-for-pound fighter and arguably the most entertaining boxer on the globe.

Pacquiao’s “Energizer Bunny” style is enough to draw most boxing fans’ interest. In recent years, Pacquiao’s domination of opponents has tended to end fights in spectacular fashion — such as the Ricky Hatton knockout, Cotto stoppage, and David Diaz knockout.

But even in fights where the endings weren’t as exciting, Pacquiao is still a pleasure to watch.

Take the Clottey fight, for instance. It was a fight that was dominated by Pacquiao from the opening bell, a fight in which Clottey suffered a slow, twelve round death. In a unanimous decision win, where two judges somehow awarded Clottey a single round, Pacquiao still made the fight entertaining. Pacquiao’s tireless work-rate was something to marvel at. He averaged over 100 purposeful punches a round throughout the twelve round bout and finished the fight looking like the he could fight twelve more.

Any time the best fighter in the world is fighting, I am going to be watching. It’s as simple as that.

The number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world versus a Mexican warrior, who can take an inordinate amount of punishment, but always seems to dish out just more than he receives. This has all the makings to be an intriguing fight.

End of squeezing lemons.

Do I buy into the hype I just tried to create in an attempt to excite myself?

I’m not so sure.

But at least I was trying to make lemonade. With the immediate dismissal of a potential Bradley or Williams fight with Pacquiao, that’s more than Arum and Top Rank can say. They simply handed off the lemons to boxing fans to let us decide what to make of them.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, disgraced former Welterweight champion Antonio Margarito was told by the Nevada Athletic Commission that he first my be granted a boxing License in the State of California before they would consider a license in it’s state.

The California State Athletic Commission revoked Margarito’s license following his Jan. 24, 2009 ninth-round knockout loss to Shane Mosley in a welterweight championship fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles over a hand-wrapping scandal that erupted in the dressing room in the moments before he was supposed to walk to the ring.

“If I would have noticed there was something irregular or wrong I would have been the first person to say I can’t go out and fight,” Margarito said through a translator.

“I think he needs to go to California and clean this matter up,” commissioner Raymond “Skip” Avansino said during the hearing. “They should be the first to rule.”

Commission chairwoman Pat Lundvall, the lone dissenting vote, argued strongly on Margarito’s behalf both for taking a vote and for licensing him.

“I do not think he has a duty legally or morally to go back to California,” she said. “It is incumbent upon this commission to act upon the application. … There is no value in kicking the can down the road.”

“We were hopeful that the commission would rule on the application after hearing our presentation and hearing Antonio answer all of their questions. He did and he did magnificently,” David Marroso, Margarito’s attorney, told ESPN.com after the hearing. “We’re disappointed in their decision to, using their words, kick the can down the road, but we heard their instructions. Antonio, his family, the lawyers and Top Rank will huddle and decide what options we’ll pursue.

“We believe he has paid his price. He’s taken responsibility. We will assess our options and keep fighting just like he’s always done. We will continue to fight. He didn’t become Antonio Margarito by just staying down.”

“I understand their position, but don’t necessarily agree with it,” said Top Rank president Todd duBoef, who was at the hearing while Top Rank chairman Bob Arum was in Puerto Rico promoting Saturday’s Juan Manuel Lopez-Bernabe Concepcion featherweight title fight. “He has served his punishment in California and is not looking to fight in California, so why apply there for a license?

“The Margarito side doesn’t believe the California commission was objective [when the license was revoked] and that they could not get an objective hearing from California now. They were hoping that Nevada would be more objective and see that a commission that Margarito is currently in litigation with would be compromised.”

“Before the fight, my trainer Javier Capetillo, my former trainer, put a knuckle pad made of gauze on my hand,” Margarito said through a translator. “I learned later the knuckle pad had something irregular on the inside but I didn’t know that truthfully in the moment. The knuckle pad didn’t seem different to ones he had put on my hands before.

“I never felt anything hard or irregular. Everything I felt was that it was a knuckle pad that was normal. In that moment, I was focused on one thing and that was preparing myself to go out to the fight with Mosley.”

“I thought about it and talked to my family and decided not to fight,” Margarito said.

“I accept responsibility because they are my hands and that is why I have taken steps to make sure this never happens again.”

“We could take the commission’s instructions and proceed to California,” Said Marroso. “This is not something we expected so it’s not something we had thought through. We’ll let Antonio digest this. We’re going to digest it and huddle and come up with a game plan. It won’t be long until the game plan is set and we act on it.”

Margarito, 32, could go to California, he could fight again outside the United States or he could apply in another state.

“I think everybody was disappointed,” Said Todd duBoef of Top Rank, which promotes Maragito. “I think he’s being victimized by red tape and a process prohibiting him from making a living. I sat next to his wife and you know she wonders where the next paycheck is coming from and that’s very difficult.”

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

By now, Antonio Margarito knows the questions like he knows an old sparring partner. He has heard them from the California State Athletic Commission. They have been thrown at him from all angles in the court of public opinion. He has heard them in whispers, shouts and legalese.

If his appearance Friday in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission were a fight, Margarito should be ready. If he isn’t, he never will be in an attempt to regain a license in the United States about 18 months after his gloves were found to be loaded and potentially lethal before a loss to Shane Mosley in January, 2009.

His fate rests not so much in what he says, but in how he says it. It’s a subtle adjustment, more about tone than substance. So far, however, Margarito has either been unable or unwilling to assume some accountability for inserts in hand wraps applied by his former trainer, Javier Capetillo.

Since he began to talk to fans and the media a few months ago, Margarito has repeatedly, almost defiantly, said he had no idea what was in those wraps. He has always assigned the blame to Capetillo. The wraps belonged to Capetillo, Margarito said. But the hands have always belonged to Margarito, which is another way of saying he can never completely separate himself from what happened.

Here’s what he can do: He can continue to say he never knew what was in the wraps, but he can include an addendum, an apology for not knowing. For those adamantly opposed to Margarito ever fighting in the U.S. again, that won’t be enough. That opposition will always be there.

But a willingness to acknowledge his own accountability represents an important step that could win over skeptics, who have yet to hear any remorse in Margarito’s explanations.

There are plenty of other hurdles for the former welterweight champion, who has been free to apply for a license in any state since Feb. 11. There is protocol. California has yet to rule on an appeal of his license revocation at a hearing a few weeks after the altered wraps were discovered at Los Angeles Staples Center.

When there were Top Rank plans for Margarito to seek a license in Texas for a bout in March on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey card in Dallas, the U.S. Association of Boxing Commissions urged that the revocation continue. Top Rank never pursued the license. Instead, Margarito fought in Mexico, winning on May 8 in his only bout since the California revocation.

Margarito is back, this time in Nevada, because he looms as a possibility for Pacquiao on Nov. 13 if Floyd Mayweather, Jr., says no next week. If Pacquiao-Mayweather is a go, then a Margarito rematch with Miguel Cotto, perhaps in December, is on Top Rank’s agenda.

There has long been speculation that Margarito’s hand wraps were altered in similar fashion for his stunning, brutal upset of the previously unbeaten Cotto in Las Vegas during the summer of 2008. There is lingering confusion about Margarito’s beat-down of Cotto at the MGM Grand.

Speculation about Margarito’s hand wraps on that night has been fueled in part by a Cotto comment. In a conference call, Cotto said nobody from his corner was in Margarito’s dressing room to watch how Capetillo wrapped his hands. However, Cotto’s assertion has been disputed in various news reports by officials and inspectors assigned by the Nevada Commission. Margarito’s management team also has told 15 rounds that somebody from Cotto’s corner was in fact in Margarito’s dressing room.

Still, suspicion about what was in Margarito’s hands for Cotto will never vanish. If Margarito didn’t know before Mosley, he can’t say he knew before, during or after Cotto.

But he can say he should have known.

That decision has always been in his hands.

NOTES, QUOTES
· Robert Guerrero said his wife’s cancer is in remission. Casey has been battling leukemia. “My wife is doing great,’’ Guerrero said Thursday in a conference call that included Joel Casamayor, his opponent for a junior-welterweight bout July 31 on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II card at Las Vegas Mandalay Bay. “She’s doing so great. That’s why I’m taking big fights and getting back into the ring.”

· Casamayor is 38 and confident as ever. “Losing is not an option,’’ Casamayor, the former lightweight champion, said. “Retirement is not an option.’’ Casamayor said he wants a rematch with Marquez, who stopped him in the 11th round in 2008.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com disgraced former Welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito will appear before the Nevada Athletic Commission in effort of regaining his boxing license in that state.

“We have him on last because that will be the longest part of the meeting,” commission executive director Keith Kizer told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

“He’s going to have to answer some tough question here,” Kizer said. “He has to be here in person. It’s a heavy burden for him to satisfy, but it’s his burden to meet. He’ll have to explain anything the commissioners want to ask him about. I assume the commissioners will ask him a lot of questions. Some may be easy, some may be hard, but the burden is solely his.”

However, in the minutes before his fight with Shane Mosley on January 24, 2009 in Los Angeles, drama had unfolded in Margarito’s dressing room. It was there that Mosley trainer Naazim Richardson objected to the way Margarito’s left hand had been wrapped.

California officials eventually cut off the wrap to check it and discovered an illegal pad coated in a plaster-like substance, which had obviously escaped the notice of the commission inspector who oversaw the wrapping procedure. When the wrap on Margarito’s right hand was also cut off for examination, an identical illegal pad was also discovered.

Margarito’s hands we re-wrapped and he went on to lose the fight. Three weeks later, Margarito’s claim of ignorance at a hearing was rejected by the California State Athletic Commission and he had his license revoked in a 7-0 vote, as did trainer Javier Capetillo.

“I really believe he should get his license in Nevada,” Said Bob Arum, who promotes Maragrito. “He and his attorney will present the reasons and the Nevada commission will decide. We went to Nevada because that’s where we are planning for him to fight. If it’s not against Pacquiao in November, it would be against Cotto in December.

“I’m optimistic the Nevada commission will do the right thing, but I haven’t talked to anyone on the commission, not one person, and neither has [Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef].” Arum said they are approaching the Nevada commission now so they don’t have to rush like they had in Texas earlier this year.

“If Floyd elects not to step up to the plate and fight Pacquiao and Pacquiao elects to fight Margarito, if that happens, we need to make sure Margarito has a license,” Arum said. “You can’t go to Pacquiao and see if he will fight Margarito if the guy doesn’t even have a license. So we are doing this now instead of rushing around at the last minute.”

“This is not that different from other situations where people had things in their past that the commission wanted to ask them about before deciding about a license,” Kizer said. “We did it with people like Mike Tyson, Zab Judah and Roger Mayweather, who had all been disciplined in Nevada. Margarito’s situation was in California, but we have the same rules as they do. Margarito was revoked, and after a year you are free to apply anywhere. He sat out for [more than] a year, and now he can reapply.”

“They have full discretion and jurisdiction,” he said. “I know there will be a lot of people on both sides. If they do grant him a license, there will be a lot of people yelling, ‘They’re crazy for giving him a license.’ And if they don’t, there will be a lot of people yelling, ‘They’re crazy for not giving him a license.’ They’ll be criticized either way, so they don’t have to worry about it. The five commissioners will listen to what he has to say and make the decision.”

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Attorney Daniel Pertocelli dismissed reports that Antonio Margarito’s gloves were loaded with a rock-like substance before he was ordered to re-wrap his hands before a loss to Shane Mosley more than a year ago in Los Angeles.

“Completely false,’’ Petrocelli said Monday in a conference call that included Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who is promoting Margarito’s return to the ring in Mexico on May 8.

Arum said he scheduled the conference call in an attempt to correct conclusions that he says were based on “misinformation” about circumstances that led to a one-year revocation of Margarito’s license by the California State Athletic Commission.

Margarito, who has been free to re-apply for a license in the United States since February, is scheduled to appear at a news conference Tuesday at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Petrocelli said an “irregularity” was discovered in the gauze above one knuckle in the wraps when Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson asked for a closer look before opening bell of a welterweight fight on Jan 24 at Staples Center. The California commission conducted a forensic test of the wraps, said Petrocelli, who said he was not allowed to have different experts conduct a second test.

The California test turned up traces of calcium and sulfur, according to Petrocelli, who said both substances can be found in hand creams.

Pertocelli also dismissed talk that Margarito used similar wraps in the summer of 2008 in an upset of Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. He called the speculation a “myth.”

California and Nevada rules are different, said Petrocelli, who won a wrongful death judgment in 1997 against O.J. Simpson in civil court. In California, trainers are allowed to bring their own wraps. Nevada provides the wraps. Javier Capitello, Margarito’s trainer for Mosley, also had his license revoked for 12 months. Robert Garcia of Oxnard, Calif., is Margarito’s current trainer.

Margarito has said consistently that he did not know Capetillo had wrapped his hands illegally. In an interview with 15 Rounds on March 11 in a lobby of a Dallas-area hotel before Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium; Margarito said; “I did nothing wrong.’’

Petrocelli said he is trying to clear Margarito’s name with an appeal in the California courts. He expects a ruling sometime this year. Meanwhile, Arum plans to apply for license in the U.S. after Margarito’s May 8 bout against Roberto Garcia in Aguascalientes.

“His next fight will be in the United States,’’ said Arum, who was unable to get Margarito licensed in Texas in time for him to fight on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, disgraced former welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito will make his return to the ring in Mexico on May 8th against Roberto Garcia.

Maragrito still has not been licensed in the United States following being caught with a Plaster of Paris like substance in his handwraps just before being stopped by Shane Mosley last January in Los Angeles.

“He’ll fight at junior middleweight and then, depending on who he will fight in his next fight, he might get back down to welterweight,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. “Margarito really wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and that would be at welterweight. If the Pacquiao fight isn’t there, he might face the winner of the [June 5] fight between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto.”

Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank

GRAPEVINE, Tex. – Antonio Margarito had hoped to fight Saturday night in Texas. He won’t. But he did show up Thursday night at the official hotel for the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight Saturday night and talked about his comeback in Mexico, his hopes for a fight in the United States and said again that he never knew his ex-trainer tried to load his gloves with a plaster-like substance before a loss to Shane Mosley.

“It was not my fault,’’ Margarito told 15 Rounds in a crowded lobby at the Gaylord Texan when asked about the glove controversy. “It is something my trainer did wrong.’’

Margarito’s license in California was revoked after his former trainer, Javier Capetillo, told the California State Athletic Commission that he inadvertently placed pieces of a plaster-like substance in his hand wraps. The substance was found when Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson asked Capetillo to re-wrap the hands before a bout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in January, 2008.

Margarito’s license was revoked for a year. He was able to re-apply on Feb. 11. Promoter Bob Arum had planned for him to fight on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard. Arum said there wasn’t enough time to complete the process. Margarito can apply anywhere, but there has been public pressure for him to first re-apply in California.

“I’m letting my attorneys handle that,’’ the Spanish-speaking Margarito said through an interpreter.

Meanwhile, Margarito, who has reunited with trainer Robert Garcia, said there is nothing he can do about public suspicions that he had to know his gloves were loaded.

“I can only go into the ring,’’ he said. “Only in the ring. That’s where the truth is.’’

Margarito said he is planning to be at Cowboys Stadium Saturday night because he hopes to fight Pacquiao, a heavy favorite over Clottey. There already is speculation that Arum will make a Pacquiao-Margarito fight if another round of talks for Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. unravel a second time.

Margarito, who said he been training in Tijuana for a May 8 comeback in Mexico against Carson Jones, also said he would agree to a rematch with Miguel Cotto, whom he beat badly in July, 2008 in Las Vegas.

“Just name the time and the place,’’ he said. “Anytime, anywhere.’’

Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank

Anybody seen Antonio Margarito lately? Anybody heard from him? There have been more Tiger Woods sightings during the last three months than there have been of Margarito in more than a year. Margarito has vanished, almost as if he’s in hiding.

In the court of public opinion, it’s a bad idea, especially if he ever hopes to be licensed in the United States again. Fair or not, there is talk he is hiding because there is something to hide.
Out of sight, but not of mind.

Questions continue about why, not whether, his gloves were loaded 13 months ago before a loss to Shane Mosley in Los Angeles. Some people want him to apologize. I just want to hear an explanation, straight and unvarnished, from Margarito. He needs attorney Daniel Petrocelli for the legalese required in appearances before the California State Athletic Commission or the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation or some other bureaucracy.

But legal arguments won’t erase deep-seated skepticism about his claim that he had no idea disgraced ex-trainer Javier Capitello put some plaster-like substance into wraps that would turn gloves into weapons of mass destruction. Nobody who has ever worn gloves believes that one. Nobody who has ever worn shoes believes it either. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If there’s a rock in your shoe, you know it.

I have no idea how Margarito would answer the questions. Until he does, however, it’s impossible for me to say that he should be re-licensed. If he can’t stand up and argue for himself, how can anybody argue for him?

He didn’t fight anywhere for a year. That was the idea when California revoked his license on Feb. 10, 2009. He did what he had to. He did the time. But the process is incomplete without an explanation that may – or may not – serve as the final punctuation in this ongoing controversy.

Top Rank’s plans for him to fight on the March 13 card featuring Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas were dropped because of pressure on Texas not to grant him a license. It just wasn’t going to happen.

His Texas application is still pending, but it doesn’t figure to go anywhere until he first re-applies in California. Even if he does that, there will be controversy that only he can address. If – as tentatively planned — Margarito fights on May 8 in Mexico, it would only be a further complication. Regulators in California or Nevada or Texas or Arizona probably would see the move as another way to duck the questions. He’s being doing a lot of that.

During the week before Pacquiao’s victory in November over Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas, he was scheduled to make an appearance at a nearby shopping mall. I and couple of other sportswriters jumped into a car and rushed out to meet him. He had been there. But by the time we arrived, he had vanished, which is what will happen to Margarito’s career if he doesn’t show up and practice some accountability.

Between Cotto’s victory over Clottey in June and his loss to Pacquiao, there had been a lot of talk about a Cotto-Margarito rematch. To this day, nobody knows whether Margarito’s gloves were similarly armed, locked and loaded in his stunning beat-down of Cotto.

But talk of a rematch, like Margarito, has vanished. Cotto told the English-speaking press that he would be interested in rematch. Then, he was quoted in the Spanish-speaking press as saying there was no way he would help Margarito make money.

Let’s just say that Cotto has his own suspicions.

Until we hear from Margarito, that’s all anybody has.

NOTES, QUOTES
· High school senior Jose Benavidez, a junior-welterweight from Phoenix, continued to impress by scoring two knockdowns in first-round stoppage of John Michael Vega Saturday night on the undercard of super-flyweight Nonito Donaire’s third-round KO of Manuel Vargas at the Las Vegas Hilton. Benavidez’ next fight is scheduled for the Pacquiao-Clottey weekend. He could appear on the undercard at Cowboys Stadium. But the place probably would be empty for bout early on the card. Instead, Benavidez (2-0, 2 KOs), who has Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach in his corner, might fight on a Dallas card Friday night in smaller room where people would see him. And remember him.
· Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, has added some boxing drills to his training regimen. He’s not the first. Swimmer Gary Hall Jr., a 10-time medalist over three Olympics, put on gloves and hit the heavy bags for years. Hall, who taught heavyweight Earnie Shavers’ kids how to swim, was a fight fan. Hall, a sprinter, said the regimen helped strengthen his muscles and improved his reaction time off the starting blocks.