If Antonio Margarito is the villain in Saturday’s title fight against Manny Pacquiao, someone forgot to give the screenplay to boxing fans.
Fort Worth’s Eric Reyna, 29, gathered with about 1,000 fans Sunday at La Gran Plaza Mall to listen as Margarito took questions and signed autographs in what morphed into more of a pep rally than a public appearance.
For fans such as Reyna and older brother Jose, a sports hero can do no wrong even if he does wrong. Such is the case of “The Tijuana Tornado,” who was found to have plaster on his hand wraps before a 2009 fight with Shane Mosley. Margarito served a one-year suspension. Yet, Margarito was handpicked by promoter Bob Arum and Jerry Jones to help boost attendance for Saturday’s bout at Cowboys Stadium and stands to make around $5 million.
Sports history is filled with athletes or coaches who’ve looked to take shortcuts, whether with performance-enhancing substances or other schemes, and the results have been mixed in how they recover from these scandals.
Certainly, Margarito appears to have recovered from the controversy.
The Reyna brothers buy into the notion that Margarito’s former trainer, Javier Capetillo, could have doctored the gloves and wraps without Margarito’s knowledge.
“I honestly try to ignore it because I don’t want to look at him as a bad guy if he didn’t know about the wraps,” Eric Reyna said. “Either way, I liked him before. If he knew about it, I doubt he wrapped his hands like that all the time. Maybe he just did it for that fight if that is what happened.
“I don’t want to look at him as the bad guy. I’m willing to give him a second chance and, hopefully, he wins or gives Pacquiao a good fight at least.”
Based on the enthusiastic reaction Margarito received during
