GRAPEVINE, Tex. – Villains and heroes drive a good a drama, and the boxing world has always used them to promote a big match.
For the WBC junior middleweight title match between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium Saturday night, Margarito has been fitted for the bad-guy role. And he is well-deserving of the part.
Margarito had his license revoked in California after attempting to get into the ring with illegal hand wraps against Shane Mosley in a fight at the Staples Center in 2009. He disavowed any knowledge, blaming his then-trainer, Javier Capetillo.
On Tuesday night, a video surfaced of Margarito and a member of his camp, boxer Brandon Rios, making fun of Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, who has Parkinson’s disease. Margarito can be seen with his hands shaking, mimicking Roach’s tremors, and Rios is seen shaking with his head twisted sideways and mimicking Roach’s tremors. Robert Garcia, Margarito’s trainer, was egging them on.
Garcia called Roach to apologize for the video Thursday morning, and Margarito appeared at a press conference for the undercard boxers later in the day to apologize.
Margarito said the video was edited to make it look like he was making fun of Roach. He said the person who recorded the video told him that Roach had said Pacquiao was going knock him out and Margarito said his motions with his hands were him feigning fear over Roach’s statement.
“I want to apologize to Freddie Roach and everyone who has that disease because I would never in my life make fun of anyone like that,” Margarito said through a translator. “I just want you to know I would never do anything like that. I just want you to know I’m not that kind of person.”
Roach accepted the apologies from Garcia, Rios and Margarito. He said Garcia called him to explain what happened.
“He said he just wasn’t thinking,” Roach said. “He said, ‘I was throwing stuff at them and they were throwing stuff at me and they went overboard.'”
Roach is still not buying that Margarito had no knowledge of the illegal hand wraps that Capetillo tried to use before the Mosley fight. But it wasn’t enough to stop him from advising Pacquiao to fight him Saturday.
Margarito, who was labeled “Marga-cheato” by his critics, spent much of the time on the HBO boxing reality series “2-4/7” trying to rehab his damaged image. In the opening episode, Pacquiao said he didn’t believe Margarito’s story and did an overly exaggerated impression of Margarito with his hands outstretched and looking away while pretending to get his hands wrapped. On the same program, Margarito and Garcia made light of the controversy by putting a brick on top of Margarito’s hands and attempting to wrap it with gauze.
It seems that Margarito has done a good job of convincing his fans of his innocence. He was heartily cheered by those who attended an open workout on Tuesday and he was embraced by them when he went to sign autographs afterward.
Still, Margarito will never be able to rehab his image to boxing purists. He paints himself as a hapless victim, but he has been fitted with the role of villain for the fight against Pacquiao. He wears it well and he will be paid handsomely ($3 million) for it.
Call it the role of a lifetime.
MATCH GAME Promoter Bob Arum is already thinking about Pacquiao’s next opponent if he gets past Margarito. Arum said he met with Mosley and his new manager, James Prince, last Sunday in Las Vegas. The first priority is to try to make a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. But if that doesn’t happen, Mosley is a natural choice.
