The most impressive thing about Margarito was always the hype job that somehow, overnight, turned a crude fringe champion with a very suspect resume into the ?Most Feared Man in Boxing.??Paul Magno
Antonio Margarito (now 39 8) returned to the ring for the first time in over four years against Jorge Paez Jr. (39-9-2) at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City in front of 10,000 fans along with Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez doing TV commentary and other celebrities at ringside.
The either much admired or much hated Margarito (depending on your view) won a close but unanimous decision and in so doing displayed his ability to come back from a knock down in the 6th round. He then dished out more than he received to win by scores of were 97-93, 96-93 and 95-94 over the much younger Paez Junior (who holds two wins over Omar Chavez, KOd once-beaten Ronald Morales, and won over undefeated Daniel Echeverria in August 2015). The won-loss record of his last four opponents has been 72-1 coming in. Junior is no slouch.
It was a solid match-up considering the Tornado?s long absence from the ring and proved to be an entertaining fight with many concussive and furious exchanges. Margo, unlike the old version, went headhunting most of the time and that allowed Junior to stay fresh until the end.
But the fact is, Margarito WON and showed that he is still capable of filling the seats. While his performance was not exceptional, it?s a start and if he is matched carefully in his next 2 or 3 outings, he could find himself in a fight for a decent payday.
There was plenty of pre-fight emotion so let the post-fight venom start spewing. Most pundits (or ?superstar writers? as Max Kellerman describes them) will now say that this version of the guy many say Mayweather Jr. wanted no part of should retire. Maybe so, but exactly on what basis will that reasoning be grounded?
