CHANCES are it will be Mexican Antonio Margarito and not Filipino opponent Manny Pacquiao who will enter the ring tomorrow night a bothered man.
Just a few days after drawing flak for supposedly making fun of Freddie Roach?s health, Margarito contested allegations that he mocked the famed trainer?s physical ailment.
?I want to tell the fans and everyone in Mexico that I was already bothered by this video. But I am calm and God knows I?m not making fun of anything. I did say that ?he was scared? and shook my hands. But I was not making fun of him,? said Margarito in a impromptu press briefing yesterday.
In a video that spread like wildfire over the Internet, Margarito was seen slightly extending his arms in front of him, moaned ?Oh, Freddie Roach?, then shook his hands as if it was involuntarily shaking.
The camera then panned to the right and took a shot of Margarito?s sparring partner Brandon Rios, who then acted like he was having difficulty speaking while contorting his face.
Roach is suffering from Parkinson?s disease and is taking a concoction of drugs to control the disease from getting worse.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, has kept his silence just hours before fight time, considering that it was he who has been bugged by allegations about being distracted by activities not related to boxing during their entire training camp.
Tension, however, has abated for a bit after Roach and Margarito?s trainer Roberto Garcia had a telephone conversation yesterday, with the famed American trainer accepting their rival?s apology.
?You know what, I?m a forgiving person. I think they realize that they went a little bit too far. I was upset but not anymore,? said Roach.
As if the physical issue was not enough, Margarito?s former trainer Javier Capetillo recently came out in the open and admitted he was responsible for trying to load up the Mexican?s handwraps.
?I made a mistake. I just screwed up and I did it in front of (Shane) Mosley?s trainer and the commissioners. I was just under a lot of pressure because I knew we shouldn?t have taken the fight,? Capetillo told Ring Magazine?s Dough Fisher in a recent interview.
Capetillo said Margarito had to lose about 50 lbs in fighting and eventually losing to Mosley last January 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
?I knew Tony was in trouble and I knew I had to put him in that position,? said Capetillo who also claims he acted on his own.
Today the official weigh-in will be held at outside the East Plaza of the fight?s main venue, the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Tomorrow, Pacquiao will be gunning for his eighth division crown as he battles Margarito in a 12-round, 150-lb catch-weight brawl for the vacant World Boxing Council super welterweight crown.
