“…Breaking rocks in the hot sun…”
“I fought the law and the law won…”
Great old song by the Bobby Fuller Four which proves that crime doesn’t always pay but, when the Texas boxing board gets Antonio Margarito’s $20 fee and hands him a license, we can say crime can lead to pay per view riches…
(Which reminds me that AOL Fanhouse’s David Whitley has jumped on the Bash Margarito bandwagon and taken some licks at Jerry Jones as well. Whitley even jabs at Our Congressmanny.)
Nothing better on a bright and sunny August Friday than a visit to the old hoosegow, I always say.
Who needs the Hamptons with all those moneyed blowhards pontificating and posturing? I leave that to the Great Gatsby types.
And that’s where I was today, in a suburban New York correctional facility where the inmates wear bright orange jumpsuits.
That reminded me that boxer Luis Resto and trainer Carlos ?Panama? Lewis had to put on penitentiary togs after they got nabbed at Madison Square Garden after taking the stuffing (horsehair) out of the boxing gloves with which Resto then beat the stuffing out of Irish Billy Collins.
Both boxer and trainer did their upstate time, ironically enough, not far from Canadian border in the Collins Correctional Facility.
Fighter Resto, who made virtual pennies in his middling ring career, remained banned for boxing for life.
Lewis, who had been considered the brightest young trainer/cornerman in the game as his stock rose along with his sensational champion Aaron ?Hawk? Pryor and others, has been unable to get a trainer’s license despite the fact that he ?paid his debt to society? in that jail.
And that’s why I was thinking this balmy afternoon that both Antonio Margarito and trainer Javier Capetillo could easily be wearing bright orange jumpsuits and serving time in a California prison.
What Resto, Lewis and others perpetrated on Collins?I was at ringside that night?was deemed criminal assault by the Manhattan District Attorney and the pugilistic pair was duly prosecuted and justice took its course.
Criminal law in New York and all other states, of course, has lesser prison penalties for attempted crimes.
Attempted criminal assault naturally is treated less severely than a carried out assault does just as attempted murder normally won’t draw a punishment as homicide does.
That’s just common sense, right?
I first sat down to blast Oscar de la Hoya for his stance that the two Mexicans, the disgraced fighter and the cheating trainer with their loaded knuckle pads or inserts, should be banned for life.
Actually, Oskie only spoke on Margarito but that’s immaterial since Capetillo has exiled himself to his homeland and will never go back to California or to any other American jurisdiction.
But, after mulling it over, I admit that ODLH has a point and I don’t mean the conical shape of his head.
Just because they got nabbed in the dressing room before the fight Margarito lost (bad karma?) to Shane Mosley, doesn’t turn what he and Capetillo did into a violation like jumping the turnstile to get a free ride on the subway or spitting on the sidewalk.
What they did was an attempt to commit a criminal act, an act that could have placed Mosley’s health or even his life in peril.
I saw hundreds of guys wearing bright orange jumpsuits today and I thought about Margarito.
Instead of griping about his one year ban by California and their Wednesday refusal to relicense him, the Tijuana fighter should be thanking his lucky stars.
Maybe the DA in Los Angeles wasn’t paying attention or cares less about boxing, I don’t know.
This time, on this topic, de la Hoya is not completely off the mark.
Margarito could be wearing one of those bright orange jumpsuits even now.
