One would think that if Antonio Margarito tried to use hardened hand wraps against Shane Mosley back in January 2009, that he’d used them before.
It makes sense, doesn’t it?
But I offer that while it makes some sense, it isn’t fair to make that assumption, that leap in logic.
Yes readers, we are taking a break from SuckerPunchGate, and the “Will Manny and Mayweather ever fight?” debate long enough to revisit an oldie but goodie: the Antonio Margarito handwrap controversy from 2009.
The occasion is called for because Margarito will take on Miguel Cotto on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden, the big room, and the two boxers hit Manhattan on Tuesday to hype the much anticipated redo.
Most fight fans seem to be of the mindset that Margarito is rightfully saddled with the nickname “Margacheato,” because they don’t buy it that he was unaware, that he didn’t know then trainer Javier Capetillo had put in pads with elements of plaster of paris on them into his gloves, before Margarito was to enter the ring against Shane Mosley.
Cotto, in NYC, said he does not know if Margarito was cheating when they got it on. But he showed a picture taken on the night he fought Margarito on his cell phone to a group of writers which he said showed a tear in Margarito’s wrapped hands, a tear in the tape and gauze. He implied that something shady was afoot on that night. He said he “didn’t know” who took the photo, which he got at the beginning of the year but that he didn’t spend too much time or energy thinking about whether the Mexican’s gloves were loaded on July 26, 2008.
“I accept my defeat like a man,” he said of the first scrap, which saw Cotto battered and done in round 11. “It’s the first time I show the pictures to anybody.”
He said he wasn’t bothered by the fixation on the handwraps. “The thing with Margarito was 2008 the chapter that was closed in that book..this is another chapter,” he said. He said that “Margarito’s just another human being. I don’t have to like him, I just have to fight him December third.”
Looking forward, Cotto said that he’d be watching that first fight for the very first time soon, in order to determine what he did wrong, so he could correct it. He said that he overtrained in the first scrap, and wouldn’t make the same mistake this time.
