ANTONIO MARGARITO’S APPLICATION FOR RECONSIDERATION BEFORE CALIFORNIA STATE ATHLETIC COMMISSION, HEARING CONTINUES IN LOS ANGELES
Hearing began at 10 am California time, 10 minute “bathroom break” is being taken at 12:05 pm PDT.
His Hollywood slick attorney Daniel Petrocelli made an impassioned pitch to the California State Athletic Commission to have Antonio Margarito’s boxing license fully restored.
But, as the hearing progressed, Margarito was stumbling like a fighter hurt and on shaky legs under cross examination by Karen Chappelle of the State Attorney General’s Office.
Probably the most poignant and dramatic statement from the Mexican boxer who was caught along with trainer Javier Capetillo for trying to use illegal handwraps in a bout against Sugar Shane Mosley came when he was talking about firing his longtime trainer.
?It was hard to do,? Margarito said of canning Capetillo, who was also suspended by the CSAC and now trains fighters in Mexico. ?But I broke my relationship because it had to be done.?
Margarito’s new trainer, former world junior lightweight champion Robert Garcia attended the hearing at which the boxer referred to him as ?a clean trainer.?
Margarito stressed his lost time in the ring and said he had been and was continuing to testify honestly.
?My life was taken away,? Maragrito said of the suspension.
?But I am being honest with all of you and all the boxing crowd.?
Promoter Bob Arum hopes they get clearance in California so that the Mexican veteran can fight Manny Pacquiao Nov. 13, either in Dallas or Las Vegas.
Petrocelli, for his part, was not aggressive in his presentation, saying that although Margarito is still appealing the suspension in a state court, the boxer was not now asking for ?reconsideration but is, instead, looking to advance his delayed career.
The attorney who whipped OJ Simpson in a civil case asked the commissioners to take into account Margarito’s ?actions to date? after the February, 2009, suspension and also ?his acknowledgement of wrongdoing.?
Basically, Petrocelli went with a ?he did the time? approach meaning that Margarito did not slip off to Mexico or elsewhere outside the United States during his 12 month ban.
Without explicitly saying so, the lawyer offered Margarito as someone who did wrong, was punished and is now rehabilitated. i?He wants to fight,? Petrocelli said. ?It (the suspension) is one year, it is not indefinite. He wants to fight in California.
?He wants to regain his name and we believe he has earned that right.?
That may have been a poor choice of words by the attorney as he well knows the license is granted by the state, by any American commission, as a privilege, not a legal right.
