The fight salesmen tried to peddle the idea that there was some, seething and deep seated animosity bordering on hatred between Manny Pacquiao and Mexican archrival Juan Manuel Marquez. No doubt the Pinoy Idol is often irritated by Juan Ma and vice versa. But rarely in boxing has there been some obvious contempt between two ring rivals as that which exists between Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto and disgraced handwrap cheater, the Mexican Antonio Margarito. It’s no rarity, in the days leading up to a hyped up fight, for one fighter to have an obvious chip on his shoulder. As for Margarito-Cotto II, set for HBO PPV TV and a sold out Madison Square Garden filled mostly with 19,000 Cotto-loving Boricuas, the disgust each has for the other is in plain view. Margarito spoke first at Wednesday’s final prefight presser and he made his loathing of Cotto his main topic. “He,” a swaggering Margarito said, “calls me a criminal…Open the door for a criminal…” Then, in a personal attack of his own, Margarito upped the ante to what was already a vendetta rematch. “He calls me a criminal but I’ve have never done what he has done. I don’t know why he calls me the criminal,” Margarito said.
