Antonio DeMarco stood at a podium in the Chick Hearn Room at Staples Center in Los Angeles late Saturday night, holding his young daughter, Camilla, in his arms and fighting back tears.
His face was marked with welts and his right eye was grotesquely swollen and just about closed. He?d regained the World Boxing Council lightweight title that he had lost to Edwin Valero in 2010 with the most unlikely of stoppages, halting Jorge Linares in the 11th round of a fight he was trailing badly.
It was a magnificent bout ? one that capped a stunning turnaround for DeMarco, who only a few years ago was so poor that he had to eat other people?s leftovers to survive.
?When he moved to Tijuana to learn to box, he ate out of garbage cans, out of dumpsters,? promoter Gary Shaw said. ?He had to move around from place to place because he didn?t have a place to sleep, and he didn?t know where he was going to eat.?
DeMarco trailed badly on all three scorecards, 98-92 twice and 99-91, when the bout was stopped. Linares, who had spent much time sparring with Manny Pacquiao, was dominating the fight for the first five rounds or so.
DeMarco was strangely inactive, but he fought back in the sixth and made it a hellacious battle until the finish.
