I can?t help myself when it comes to Margarito, a guy who brought disgrace to himself, to his heritage as a Mexican fighter, and to the sport in general?
Antonio Margarito returns to the ring this Saturday in Chihuahua, Mexico against fringe contender Carson Jones?and I hope he loses most spectacularly.
I usually don?t single out fighters for scorn or wish ugly defeat on them. It?s just not good form for writers to be leading any sort of virtual lynch mob. But I can?t help myself when it comes to Margarito, a guy who brought disgrace to himself, to his heritage as a Mexican fighter, and to the sport in general.
Margarito appealed to some boxing writers, who championed his cause like starstruck cheerleaders, because he was a perfect, stereotypical representation of what they visualized when having wet dreams about Mexican fighters. But to me, someone who was in the trenches of the Mexican gym scene at the time of Margarito?s prime, he was little more than a cartoon caricature. In the hardcore fight gyms of Mexico, volume punching is a kid?s game and the real pros work tirelessly on footwork, balance, smart counter-punching, and effective combinations?all things that Margarito never mastered, nor tried to master.
Essentially, Margarito was always a small middleweight with a good chin fighting at welterweight. He was one of those fighters who could coerce his body into an artificially low weight just long enough to get to the weigh-in. There was never much more to his game plan than?Be bigger, be stronger, and come forward. When someone flipped the script, he was in trouble. But smart matchmaking from his promoter, Bob Arum, made sure that he was well-matched for as long as possible.
The most impressive thing about Margarito was always the hype job that somehow, almost overnight, turned a crude fringe champion with a very suspect r?sum? into the ?Most Feared Man in Boxing.?
Arum would use Floyd Mayweather?s migration from Top Rank in 2006 to create the impression that Mayweather was running from Margarito. Arum would issue fight offers to the wind from Margarito to Mayweather. And, despite the fact that it would?ve been legally improbable and logistically retarded for Mayweather to turn around and work directly with the promoter he just fought to get away from, too many people fell for the con job and a myth was born.
Then, of course, there was the black cloud that Margarito brought upon himself when he was busted with doctored knuckle pads (coated with a ?plaster-like? substance) prior to his 2009 bout with Shane Mosley. It was a heinous act that brought out the true coward in the man, a villainous old school cheat attempt that cast a dark cloud of suspicion over all of his previous performances.
I remember being smack dab in the middle of the online Margarito love movement and thinking aloud how someone with such horrendous footwork and who was throwing nothing more than arm punches, could cause so much physical harm to his opponents. It didn?t make sense, but as fighters had parts of their face ripped off (Sebastian Lujan?s ear) and others said that Margarito?s punches felt like bare knuckle shots (Kermit Cintron), I was vociferously calling BS on the louse?much to the annoyance of those who were wading nipple-deep in the hype. At one point, I was nearly booted from my old website?s message board because of my dust-ups with those who had bought into the Margarito fairytale and were outraged at the suggestion that he was somehow not as manly as they were being told.
Later, of course, Mosley?s trainer Naazim Richardson helped bring Margarito to justice and the con was finally out of the bag. But ?justice? is a relative term in boxing and the guy would fight again despite a license revocation by the California State Athletic Commission and an appalling absence of remorse for his deeds.
I used to carry around a double standard when it came to what Margarito did and what PEDs users do. I don?t have that double standard anymore. What Shane Mosley, James Toney, Roy Jones, etc. did is just as bad as what Margarito tried to do (and may have done prior to being caught). But there was something extra insidious about Margarito.
Margarito openly mocked those who railed against him and defied the sanctions issued to him. He sneered and mugged to cameras. He was the cocky kid with all the right connections who just knew that he was above the law and got a rush out of letting you know it as well.
His last three full-time years in the sport served as a testament to pretty much all that is wrong in boxing. He never copped to any wrongdoing, never lived up to the spirit of the sanctions dealt to him, and just went about his business, dealing in corrupt commissions and cashing in on the fans? morbid curiosity. Ironically, Margarito?s two biggest paydays came after his disgrace (in bouts with Manny Pacquiao and a rematch with Miguel Cotto) ?saying a lot about the sport and the mindset of too many fans.
Margarito?s two biggest paydays came after his disgrace
A measure of karma may have come his way via eye injury sustained in his one-sided loss to Pacquiao and the drubbing he took in losing to Cotto, but, in boxing, you can?t keep a bad man down.
After nearly five years off, Margarito returned to active duty in March of 2016, matched against relative safe domestic opposition like Jorge Paez Jr. and Ramon (Not Canelo) Alvarez. And now he?s set to face Carson Jones?a fighter who runs hot and cold, looking like a gritty battler one fight and a marginally interested journeyman the next. Margarito stated his goal as one more run at a world title, but that really translates into ?one more big payday??and he?ll eventually get it if he keeps winning.
Sadly, there are still those who revere the guy and refuse to accept the facts, even when they?re clearly presented to them. Some will swear up and down that being 7-1 with 6 KOs prior to Plaster Gate and then 3-3 with 0 KOs post-Plaster Gate proves nothing.
Some people just love to hold on to myths and will clutch at them even more tightly when someone manages to disprove them.
As for me, I know who Antonio Margarito is and what he?s about.
Here?s to a proper comeuppance this Saturday.
