In the months and now weeks leading up to the November 13 WBC junior middleweight title bout between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, one would think that hardcore boxing fans have collectively ejected their Jean Pascal tapes and opened Blaise Pascal texts instead.
Margarito’s ignorance, false or genuine, to the fact that his handwraps were illegally stuffed with plaster prior to his 2009 loss to Shane Mosley has fans and critics of the sport questioning the morality of licensing and enabling a cheater. In a calendar year in which a neurologically damaged fighter was licensed to take part in a title bout that also might have been fixed by a Lebanese street gang, a fighter with numerous broken facial features and a blown shoulder was allowed to be pummeled by a future Hall of Fame heavyweight, and any number of ludicrous judging errors have been made, these folks have waited all the way until November, for this fight, to hoist their picket signs the highest.
Calls to boycott the fight were prevalent as soon as Top Rank formally announced the event, with some protesters trying to thicken their soft moral argument with silly claims that Margarito is unqualified to fight Pacquiao, and that better choices were available. Slowly however, that picket line has disbanded to catch the Manny bandwagon before its departure next month. For reasons that don’t need to be justified by a promoter, whose job is to attract as many fans as possible and make money, this fight is intriguing.
It’s the most loved fighter in the sport against the most controversial: The ultra-exciting, beloved marvel future Hall of Famer, conquerer of 10 weight classes, against his largest opponent yet, who happens to be hopelessly aggressive, dangerous, accomplished, and marketable as a hee
