I would rather that Filipino lawmaker Manny Pacquiao?s November 13 fight against Mexico?s Antonio Margarito be treated as an ordinary, although intriguing, event. Not the one hyped as a world title fight even if the World Boxing Council (WBC) is sanctioning it as a super welterweight championship bout.
Although the WBC is among the oldest sanctioning bodies in boxing, its legitimacy has suffered tremendously over the last decade. Winning one nowadays is like picking fallen ripe durian fruit on the ground.
The Pacquiao-Margarito encounter will be sham championship fight by any standard.
It will not add luster to Pacquiao?s incredible march to boxing stardom and impeccable ring record.
For one, Manny has never fought above the 147-lb limit. It would be foolhardy to crown him king of the super welterweight once he beats Margarito, whose own ring record is ?boosted? by a lone, I repeat lone, fight as a super welterweight.
The fact that they are fighting for a ?vacant title? also smacks of crass commercialism and plain opportunism on the part of WBC.
Second, the fact Margarito is coming off from a suspension from boxing in the US after he was caught with illegitimate substance on his hand wraps during his fight with Shane Mosley hardly makes him a credible contender in the super welterweight division.
True, the said weight class is devoid with marguee fighters other than Miguel Angel Cotto who was already beaten by Pacquiao.
Paul Williams is considered the man to beat in the said weight class. But Pacquiao?s boxing team sees him to tall at 6?1? for the Filipino who stands a mere 5?6?.
I will not fault Top Rank?s Bob Arum for wanting to see his prized ward fight another one of his ?club fighters.?
There is simply too much at stake next year for Pacquiao to take a risk in fighting Williams, besides the obvious mismatch.
But Margarito, after his pathetic knockout loss to Shane Mosley in 2008, is no longer the feared boxer he was once.
Pacquiao has more than even chances of beating, if not knocking out, the Mexican former welterweight champion.
And by failing to secure a license from the California State Athletic Commission, his credibility as a boxer and as an opponent to Pacquiao falls short from fan expectations.
Like I anticipated and predicted, Manny is now being ridiculed for taking Margarito given the Mexican?s reputation, not as a hard hitting puncher but as a sportsman lacking in character.
I will not take it against Manny for agreeing to fight Margarito. He has his own reasons.
But Pacquiao fanatics should not jump like chimpanzees if and when he beat the daylights out of Margarito. Nor should they trumpet that victory as another feather in his cap as an all time boxing great.
Manny may well earn his eight world title on November 13 but that will ring hallow.
The greatest fight there is to win is against Floyd Mayweather Jr. If only the American loudmouth cast away his imagined fears against the Filipino southpaw.
