Is Margarito a Questionable Opponent for Manny Pacquiao?
Published Aug 11 2010 by: Dana Miller | Follow us on Facebook & on Twitter
Pacquiao vs. Margarito is set for November 13
With the former pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather, Jr. undecided on whether or not he wants to fight Pacquiao, the Pac Man has turned his attention to Tijuana Tornado Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC Junior Middleweight title, as Pacquiao will attempt to collect a world title in a record eight weight classes. The venue for this fight will be held in either Las Vegas or Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, TX. The boxing world had their minds set on the mega fight between Floyd and Manny, but we will all have to settle for the consolation prize fight, which has no type of appeal unless you are a Pacquiao fan. What kind of arsenal will Margarito bring to the table come November 13? Antonio Margarito is just a sexy opponent for Pacquiao because Margarito loves to come straightforward and tries to break the will of his opponents.
Prior to Margarito getting caught with the tampered handwraps before fighting “Sugar” Shane Mosley back in January of last year, Margarito stepped into the ring against then undefeated Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto in a fight were many believe tampered handwraps played a huge role in Margarito’s eleventh round destruction victory, which resulted in the first loss of Cotto’s career. Although I do believe the tampered handwraps was a big reason why Cotto loss the fight, I do feel that Cotto did two things wrong in that fight, which did not help his cause.
Credit: Wikimedia User Javabeans / Creative Commons 2.0 License
During the Cotto/Margarito fight, Miguel Cotto clearly won the first five or six rounds of the fight with beautiful counter-punching as Margarito was coming inside, but Margarito continued to come forward and catch Cotto with hard shots using those alleged tampered handwraps. For one, Cotto never tied Margarito up once during the fight, and two, every time Cotto threw his counter-shots at Margarito, he never moved his head out of harm’s way, thus, leaving him vulnerable to Margarito’s destructive hands.
After Margarito’s destruction of Cotto, Margarito looked to do the same thing when he faced off against “Sugar” Shane Mosley last January. But in Margarito’s dressing room before the fight, “Sugar” Shane Mosley’s trainer Nazim Richardson noticed that Margarito’s handwraps had a pasty white substance on the wraps, which was considered plaster by one doctor who was in the dressing room during Richardson’s accusations. Margarito’s camp was ordered by the California State Inspector to re-wrap Margarito’s hands before entering the ring that night against Mosley.
During the Margarito/Mosley fight, Margarito came straightforward in this fight the same way he did against Cotto, but Mosley counter-punched well and he tied Margarito up when they were fighting inside. Mosley outclassed Margarito in the fight with clean punches and excellent defense, leading up to a ninth round stoppage of Margarito, to capture his WBA Welterweight Title and take away his wrecking-ball persona.
After the Mosley fight, Margarito was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission for the faulty handwraps and was prohibited from fighting in the United States for one year. In Margarito’s comeback fight in May of this year, Margarito fought Light Middleweight Roberto Garcia in Mexico. Margarito knocked Garcia down in the first round of this fight, and Garcia had points taken away from him in round eight and round ten, thus, leading to a unanimous decision victory for Margarito.
Manny Pacquiao’s last two fights were a twelve round beat down of Miguel Cotto without loaded handwraps in November of 2009, and a twelve round unanimous decision against Joshua Clottey in May of this year, in a fight were it looked like Pacquiao was fighting by himself. So how will Margarito stack up against the Pac Man in November of this year?
Margarito will have the size, height, reach, weight and strength advantage against Pacquiao in this fight, but because Margarito only knows one way to fight, and that is straightforward, I just feel that his style is tailor-made for Pacquiao’s superior aggressive and explosive offensive skills.
In the end, I feel that no other fight for Pacquiao at this point make sense, except for the undecided, confused, and I don’t know, greedy Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Mayweather can say whatever he wants about fighting Manny, but if he wants to be considered an all-time great fighter, Floyd needs to make the fight happen before it's too late. He has lost a lot of boxing fans, including this writer, and Floyd’s silence on the Pacquiao situation is not helping. It will not matter if Margarito comes to the ring on November 13, 2010 armed with loaded handwraps or not. The fact is that Pacquiao will be just too much for the Tijuana Tornado.
Margarito without his casting gloves becomes just a regular fighter without power,…mexican fighters lack of power for whatever reason, maybe the tamales and chimichangas doesn’t have the ingredient to make it happen,….we all know this should be Margarito last fight with a A fighter , his career is way over without plaster, and I’m fully agree with Dana Miller on her views on cotto-margacheato fight…
SID
Dana,
correction, Floyd will never be an an All-Time Great unless it’s a list of 50 or more. This is based on quality of opposition and how he wins fights..
Floyd Mayweather Jr is Manny Pacquiao’s fan until they crossways.
All roads lead to Floyd but as far as Pacman is concerned, he is on vacation and nowhere at the end of the road.
floyd fans dwindling now more than ever. fans, no matter how loyal,
do catch up and know when they are being hoodwinked by a glib talking
coward. about time.
Nice Article!!!
if margarito unleash a lucky punch and put pacquiao to oblivion come nov. 13 then floyd mayweather will have the last laugh.SHE(mayweather) will have all the alibis in the world not to fight pacquiao for obvious reasons.Margarito had all the advantage to pull an upset and if pacquiao will be careless then we cannot expect a mayweather-pacquiao fight in this lifetime.
Im bored with this waiting game.
I just want to know ei Money May, when are you fighting Pacquiao?
2 years ago everybody said PAC-marg would “never” happen and if the fight EVER took place marg would “destroy” PAC. Here we are today and all these so-called journalists are chiming in unity that PAC is easily going to beat marg and the outcome is preordained. Marg has more than a punchers chance in this fight and don’t be surprised if he knocks out PAC.
All you Pac fans why dont you write to Pac and ask him to take the drug test already and stop putting all the balme on Floyd!?
If Pac is so great, prove it and fight Floyd.
Now, I really dont care to see Pac vs Floyd because styles makes fights
and Floyd will easily outbox the aggressive Manny.
Floyd by UD.
Also, all you Floyd haters claim that Floyd is ducking Pacquaio, fine I will give you that.
But guess what, Pac has been ducking Marquez FOR 3 YEARS!!
I would rather see Pacquiao fight Marquez NOW which would be a better
fight.
Now to the article above, I believe Margo is made for Pacs style. Margo comes straight forward and will be hit alot.
But guess what, Margo always gets hit “alot” just look at his past fights.
However, if Margo still has the power to go along with his height and reach, he should be able to KO Manny.
Now to everyone on this site, stop being biased toward your countrymen. It is ok to be proud of your fighters but not at the expense of throwing cheap shots to others.
This is especially aimed at all you phillipinos. Fine, Pac is popular and good. But that is no reason to throw racial remarks at blacks and latinos.
Another biased article, it is clear that there quite few so called sports writers that still want to punish Margarito, but hey! do what you want and say whatever you need to say, do not pay for the fight if you really hate Margarito or wish more punishment for this great fighter, but I am sure all of you nay sayers will eventually will see the fight, temptation, temptation, temptation and curiosity killed the cat. Non of you have evidence that he has ever fought with plaster, he was caught with a presumed substance on his wraps but never fought with them. Remember, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, therefore, he has not been found guilty nor there is evidence that he did it in his previous fights. I will let time prove if he was telling the truth or not.
We do not have evidence that Pacquiao has used PED’s and we cannot assume he has because of his gain in weight and strength and also say he is using them because is refusing to do the requested test by Mayweather. If he is clean he should do the test and stop the BS that he gets weak. No, we do not have his confession or evidence, likewise with Margarito.
So, please stop your BS against an already punished boxer. And keep in mind that if he lost to Mosley it is because he got out of concentration when he was told there was something on his wraps, let alone that he was weak.
I will say, give him the benefit of the doubt and