This tension-filled Antonio Margarito-Miguel Cotto Revenge Rematch isn’t exactly Robert Garcia’s first rodeo. Not only is Garcia, a rising star among contemporary trainers, he is a former IBF junior lightweight champion who looked almost unbeatable until he ran into a wrecking machine named Diego Chico Corrales. Garcia, who was trained by his now estranged brother Danny and their father Eduardo, was even able to overcome having the handicap (lol) of having a co-manager named Michael Marley, lol Garcia basically grew up is his former fruit and vegetable picker father’s musty, old gym in Oxnard, Calif. Garcia’s current ring stars included Pinoy sensation Nonito Donaire Jr., the revamped and resurrected Margarito and cocky, slugging lightweight champ, the aptly nicknamed Brandon Bam Bam Rios. I asked Garcia after yesterday’s poisonous verbal presser exchanges between Boricua Cotto and Tijuana resident Margarito if it was his fighter who had a chip on his shoulder even though he destroyed Cotto in their first fight. (Lingering suspicions of Margarito’s handwraps being illegally loaded by ex-trainer Javier Capetillo persist. The belief by many is that, although Team Margarito only got nabbed before the Sugar Shane Mosley bout, cheating happend at other times.) “Tony is laughing about this kind of talk,” Garcia said. “If there’s a guy with a chip on his shoulder, it’s Cotto and not Tony. Cotto is the one who keeps bringing this up. He better be ready Saturday night because Tony is not going to box him, he’s going to fight him.”
