Bob Arum making silly noise, that I can understand. All the Top Rank honcho cares about are the commercial considerations of having his cash cow, Antonio Margarito, sidelined from boxing for a year or perhaps longer.
The only time Arum ever had his hands wrapped was on cold, snowy days in his Brooklyn youth. He put on gloves and mittens but never boxing gloves.Y
But a seasoned boxing man and first class ex-fighter like Freddie Roach professing his belief that the Mexican Bandito, Margocheato, is innocent of trying to maim Sugar Shane Mosley with illegally loaded handwraps? Come on, Coach, you can?t possibly be so na?ve.
I know Roach grew up in Boston, believing as we all did that the Red Sox would win the World Series in one century or the next. The Celtics collected NBA titles like they were marbles and, in later years, the football Patriots became a dynasty of sorts.
But there?s a big difference between native team loyalties and thinking that an old ring pro like Margarito was unsuspecting, himself duped by devious and now disgraced trainer Javier ?Plaster of Paris? Capetillo?
Roach?s mentor, ace trainer and total gentleman Mr. Eddie Futch, must be spinning like a gyroscope in his grave after hearing Roach?s comments.
Hey, Freddie, Margarito is as phony as the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Maybe Margocheato’s tearful plea hit the sensitive Roach in a tender spot because, if we known one thing about Prof. Roach, it’s that he is not all about the do-re-mi.
Three cheers, indeed, for Top Rank?s premier asset, Manny Pacquiao, for breaking ranks with Roach, his beloved tutor, on this important issue. Pacman is saying that Margarito had to know there was skullduggery afoot or should I say skullduggery on his own hands?
Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya has made the same assertion. And I have to say that Mosley trainer Naazim Richardson is, hands down you might say, the obvious 2009 Trainer of the Year for his nimble, locker room detective work in nailing Maregocheato and Capetillo in the despicable act.
Boxingconfidential colleague Ricardo Lois, who is also the Examiner.com LA boxing scribe, brought up a key point on the last Boxingconfidential Radio Podcast and that is how come opposing trainers in past Margarito bouts never caught the Tijuana boxer and his trainer cheating? As Lois asks, were they even paying attenton?
Was Team Miguel Cotto asleep at the switch when Margarito got his paws wrapped for his knockout of the Puerto Rican icon? Or, if you live in Fantasyland, do you think that this cheating began last Jan. 24, the night of the Mosley bout?
And how about Margarito fights in Old Mexico where the idea of commission inspectors hovering over fighters and traines as they wrap is just that, an idea and not reality?
I?ve been in dressing rooms in TJ, in Mexico City, in Cancun and Puebla over the years with superstars like Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez on down to four-round prelim kids and I never saw any commission inspectors enforcing any rules.
To give you an idea as to how loose supervision in Tijuana is, I can remember about 10-12 years ago watching a small show there in which an unbeaten, 16-year-old kid got the whey beat out of him by a 26-year-old man. It was one of the most physically brutal mismatches I?ve seen in my four decades or so around the ring.
So three cheers for Oscar as well as Manny on this topic. But where are the other leading fighters who only emit the sounds of silence?
What say you, Bernard Hopkins, who is also trained by Nimble Naazim? And how about Arum?s middleweight champ, Kelly Pavlik?
You?d think that Hopkins, who doubles as a promoter of sorts for Golden Boy, would be leading this fight. If BHop has spoken on the issue, then I missed it.
And how about other promoters? How come Don King has kept his flapping lips sealed? Where is that shrinking violet, Big Gary Shaw or the Volcanic One, Lou DiBella?
Suddenly, WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman is off the Free Antonio bus as well. Conclusive lab tests have that quieting effect.
Boxing only has a thimble full of integrity.
It?s bad actors like Margocheato and Capetillo who can empty that teeny, tiny reservoir of integrity with their disgusting behavior.
Finally, as previously noted BC colleague John Chavez, asked the pertinent question as to how come there?s been no criminal prosecution of Margarito and Capetillo?
That question lingers.
Panama Lewis, who removed the stuffing from the gloves of Luis Resto in New York, went to the slammer along with his fighter. They did the crime and then did their time.
But, instead of going after the Tijuana Two, a chief apologist like Arum wants to hold a parade for them.
For Arum, it?s all about the filthy lucre. But Coach Roach?s blindness is hard to figure and out of character.
It?s ironic given that Pacman beat the beejesus out of Oscar in their last bout.
On the vital issue of Margocheato and Capetillo, though, ODLH and Pacman are united.
Make that five cheers for both of them for being standup guys who can tell the difference between a blizzard and utter bullshit.
I hope their Greek chorus grows in size because this story about cheating hands has got what they call in the movie business legs.
(Michael Marley’s great pal and Nevada-Reno Wolf Pack colleague Frank Dell’Apa now chronicles the world champion Celtics for The Boston Globe. Bob Ryan has covered the Celts for The Globe from back when Red Auerbach had hair. Ryan once wrote of a horrible Celtic team, “The Celtics used to stand for something. Now they only stand for the national anthem.” If memory serves, that’s when the Green had Bob McAdoo and a boatload of misfits. Now, in a sneaky manner, Marley plugs his boxing site, Boxingconfidential. Fight fans also would do well to check Greg Leon’s Boxingtalk, Rick Reeno’s busy Boxing Scene,and the marvelous fountain of info at Boxrec.
For more info: You don’t have to be a closeted or in the open Pacnuhugger to truly enjoy Pacland. Other reliable sources are Philboxing and upstart Pacfans-corner.com. For Spanish language boxeo, try Jose Martino’s Boxeomundial and Ludo Saenz’s on the ball Notifight.
