Your weekly random thoughts ?
? So now what do we do with Antonio Margarito and trainer Javier Capetillo in the wake of the disclosure that the hand wraps seized by the California State Athletic Commission prior Margarcheato’s fight with Shane Mosley in January tested positive for the primary elements of plaster of paris, namely sulfur and calcium?
Margarcheato and Capetillo are both already banned from boxing in the U.S. for at least a year after California revoked both of their licenses. It’s not long enough.
According to California’s forensic evidence, they committed the mortal sin of boxing by attempting to cheat in such a potentially life-threatening manner.
Maybe they will appeal. Maybe they will still seek to have a fight outside of the U.S., such as Mexico, where officials couldn’t give a damn about our rules. Whatever happens, they are both tarnished for life and deserve an even more severe punishment than has already been doled out.
Now, I am no scientist but I do know that having plaster of paris on your fists during a fight would certainly be extremely dangerous for an opponent. A boxer’s hands are already dangerous enough. Turning them into rocks is a chilling thought. Sulfur and calcium simply do not belong anywhere near hand wraps. That they were there can be no accident.
Margarcheato can claim all he wants that he had no idea what was in his wraps, which means, at best, he’s ignorant. At worst, he’s a criminal. I’ve talked to numerous fighters since the incident. To a man, they told me that a fighter knows what is on his hands.
Capetillo has offered the pitiful excuse that he grabbed the wrong pads out of his work bag and that it was a “mistake” that he put the tainted pads into Margarcheato wraps. I bet the dog also ate his homework, too. If you really believe it was a mistake, I’ve got some Enron stock to sell you.
Why would Capetillo even have those sorts of dirty pads in the first place? The whole thing stinks.
I know no proof has been offered, but it’s hard to believe that Margarcheato’s gloves were not loaded during his vicious late-fight beat down against Miguel Cotto over the summer. Frankly, I believe he cheated against Cotto. Maybe he also cheated against others. Every one of his wins is now tainted.
Cotto feels the same way, telling El Nuevo Diaz in Puerto Rico, “They attacked not only me, but my health. God only know how many [times] they used it, with Mosley, me and before me. They must bear the full weight of the law. During my career, I have received punishment in a number of fights, and I’ve never been so swollen as I was when I left the fight with Margarito. In the heat of battle everything felt normal, but my face didn’t say the same thing. And for a few weeks afterwards half my face was swollen. Like I’ve said, the case of [trainer] Panama Lewis was exactly the same and he was suspended for life.”
Lewis wound up doing jail time for removing the padding from Luis Resto’s gloves before his 1983 fight with Billy Collins. Resto also did time. Margarcheato and Capetillo should be thankful they’re not behind bars.
? Promoter Lou DiBella might want to keep his prospects away from “ShoBox” fights in Oklahoma. DiBella got his third undefeated prospect bumped off on a “ShoBox” card in Oklahoma on Saturday when junior middleweight Harry Joe Yorgey knocked out Ronald Hearns. Previously, junior featherweight Gary Stark suffered his first loss — albeit a highly controversial decision — to Mike Oliver in February 2007, and super middleweight Jaidon Codrington, one of the hottest prospects in the sport at the time, was drilled by Allan Green in 18 seconds in November 2005. “Let’s just say we’re not Sooner fans,” Carl Moretti, DiBella’s right-hand man, joked with me the other day.
? I know I am not alone in this thinking, but I believe the April 25 fight between super middleweight titlist Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor is going to be sensational. I still scratch my head wondering why HBO insanely passed on the bout but am happy that Showtime realized how good it could be and anted up.
? I distinctly recall Top Rank’s Bob Arum saying after Kelly Pavlik’s rematch victory against Taylor, which did poorly on pay-per-view, that he wasn’t going to put Pavlik on PPV again for a while. So what has happened? Arum has put two of Pavlik’s last three bouts on PPV, and his next fight on June 27 against Sergio Mora will also be on PPV. Going on PPV, especially when two of the bouts are on Top Rank’s own small cards, isn’t doing anything to help Pavlik grow his fan base beyond his Ohio roots.
? Is it me or is “The Battle of East and West,” which is what Top Rank’s Arum named the Ricky Hatton-Manny Pacquiao fight, the single worst title ever given to a fight? Love the fight. Despise the name.
? You all know I love Edison Miranda’s crazy trash talk but sometimes it is just too much. Take this quote, for example, from a recent news release issued on his behalf, in which Miranda called out the winner of the April 25 Froch-Taylor super middleweight title bout. In part, Miranda had this to say about Taylor: “Jermain, you have avoided me for long enough.” Excuse me? Taylor avoided Miranda? Perhaps Miranda doesn’t recall but he got knocked out and destroyed by Pavlik in a title eliminator for the right to face Taylor, who was committed to facing the winner. It happened to be Pavlik, whom Taylor fought and lost his title to. Taylor never avoided Miranda. Miranda just couldn’t take care of his business to earn the shot.
? OK, so now that Winky Wright is finally going to get back to work next week when he faces Paul Williams, maybe his spot on the milk carton goes to Mikkel Kessler.
? I’m looking forward to Golden Boy’s “Lightweight Lightning” pay-per-view card on Saturday. I think all four televised bouts — Edwin Valero vs. Antonio Pitalua for a vacant title, Michael Katsidis vs. Jesus Chavez, Carlos Hernandez vs. Vicente Escobedo and Julio Diaz vs. Rolando Reyes — have a chance to be entertaining. For the record, I’m going with Pitalua in the upset in the main event.
? Now that injured featherweight titlist Steven Luevano has had to withdraw from his defense against Bernabe Concepcion on the Hatton-Pacquiao undercard, I love Top Rank’s idea to bring junior lightweight titlist Humberto Soto right back after his four-round demolition of Antonio Davis last week.
? Promoters Main Events and Russell Peltz, who are close because Peltz also serves as Main Events’ matchmaker in addition to running his own company, are talking about a fight I find very intriguing. They’d like to do a summer match on Showtime’s “ShoBox” featuring exciting Philadelphia welterweight prospect Mike Jones (17-0, 15 KOs) against Paterson, N.J., prospect Henry Crawford (21-0-1, 9 KOs). That’s a terrific fight and the winner will have made a solid statement. I love the fact each side is willing to gamble that its guy wins.
? Besides looking forward to Saturday’s “Lightweight Lightning” pay-per-view boxing card, I am even more psyched for WrestleMania 25 on Sunday. In the four biggest matches on the blockbuster card, I’m going with Randy Orton to regain the WWE title from Triple H; John Cena to recapture the World Heavyweight title in his triple-threat match with Edge and Big Show; Undertaker to extend his WrestleMania record to 17-0 by beating Shawn Michaels; and Jeff Hardy to prevail in his extreme rules/family feud match with brother Matt Hardy. (Maybe brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko should watch that one?)
? DVD pick of the week: I love big punchers. So when a friend of mine, with whom I regularly trade DVDs, sent me several fights from the 1980s a couple of weeks ago, I made sure to request that he include something of Julian Jackson. In his heyday, there was no bigger knockout artist than The Hawk. One of the fights I received was Jackson’s first defense of his junior middleweight belt against Buster Drayton in Atlantic City, N.J., on July 30, 1988 and televised on CBS. (Remember those good old days?) It was a slugfest from the start as they traded hard shots all the way. Drayton went down on the left hook in the second round, but it was nothing compared to the left hook he would eat in the final seconds of the third. Jackson cracked him with the left and as Drayton fell — seemingly in slow motion — flat on his back in the center of the ring. Jackson knew the fight was over and, as Drayton fell, Jackson hoisted his right arm and then pointed to the canvas as if to direct Drayton’s picturesque fall. Terrific fight and awesome knockout.
