Antonio Margarito, who is Manny Pacquiao’s opponent in a Nov. 13 title bout at Cowboys Stadium, is obviously well known all across his homeland of Mexico.
The nagging question is whether Margarito, caught “plasterhanded” with illegal handwraps inserts in the dressing room before he fought and lost to Sugar Shane Mosley, is any kind of ring icon.
The question is if Margarito is famous or notorious. Is he popular or considered a pariah who has disgraced Mexico’s glorious boxing tradition and history?
No less a sagacious Mexican boxing figure than 73 year old Rafael Mendoza, who advised an amazing 22 world champions including Miguel Canto and Pipino Cuevas, told me Tuesday that Margarito is notoriois in the sense that America’s most notorious gngster was.
“Margarito is popular in Mexico in much the same way that Al Capone was popular in your country,” Mendoza said by telephone from his secret lair in Guadalajara.
“Margarito is not famous in the sense that Barrera, Morales or Juan Manuel Marquez are famous. Margarito never fought any important fights or any bouts in Mexico City. He’s been perceived as just an ordinary fighter, a latter day boxer like an Indian Ortega, who fought and lost to Emile Griffith and many others back in the 1960s.”
Don’t get Mendoza, who always represents fighters without a written contract, wrong. He
