Margarito being grilled on hand wrap issues at Chelsea Piers

Antonio Margarito was a picture of serenity for most of the press conference Wednesday.

Dressed in a dark sports coat and light-colored shirt, Margarito flashed a toothy grin and cracked up at the sight of Manny Pacquiao during the ceremonial stare-down at Chelsea Piers.

The two will fight on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium at a catch weight of 150 pounds on HBO Pay-Per-View.

But Margarito turned morose when he sat down to field questions about a hand-wrap controversy that won't go away and has dogged a promotional tour that seems cursed.

Bob Arum's oldest son, John, 49, was reported missing on Sunday after he didn't return from a solo hiking expedition in the Cascade Mountains near Seattle.

During the pacquiao vs margarito press conference in L.A. on Tuesday, Arum hastily left to assist in the search and rescue mission, leaving his stepson and president of Top Rank, Todd duBoef, to deal with a festering controversy.

Margarito was found to have illegal inserts lined with a plaster-like substance in his wraps before he faced Shane Mosley on Jan. 24, 2009.

Even though Margarito was allowed to fight with new wraps, his boxing license was revoked by the California commission for a year, threatening his reputation as an honest fighter and raising questions as to whether he fought previous bouts with loaded wraps.

Margarito, a former welterweight champ, has always maintained his innocence, saying he was oblivious to what his trainer put in his wraps in the dressing room.

But others aren't so sure. Pacquiao, who was recently elected to Congress in the Philippines, said Wednesday that he believes Margarito knew what was going on before he fought Mosley.

"He had to know," said Pacquiao, widely regarded as the top fighter in the sport.

And Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, agreed, telling the Daily News: "Personally, it's hard for me to imagine that a fighter wouldn't know what's going into his hand wraps.

Greenburg said HBO would have broadcast Pacquiao's next bout regardless of the opponent.

"It's a tough call to back away (from this fight) for moral reasons and then exit the Manny Pacquiao business and then watch the premier fighter in the world migrate to another network," Greenburg said. "We just can't let that happen."

Margarito insisted he was innocent Wednesday and denied doctoring his wraps in previous fights.

"You know, all these people are saying that but they don't know," Margarito told The News through a translator. "I know that I'm a clean fighter. I never did anything wrong and I didn't even go up into the ring with those things."

Margarito (38-6, 27 knockouts) went before the California commission again on Aug. 18 of this year to reapply for a license and was again denied.

"He wasn't really taking any type of responsibility for any type of rehabilitation that was required," George Dodd, executive director of the California state commission, told the Daily News.

Top Rank turned its sights to Texas, where Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 knockouts) fought in March and drew 51,000 to a fight at Cowboys Stadium. Margarito found a smoother landing strip there. After three days of reviewing his application, Texas granted him a license. Margarito told The News that no one from Texas ever spoke to him or questioned him about the hand wraps.

"Personally, I think that there was enough doubt about his culpability that I don't know if I wanted to hold that against him," Bill Kuntz, executive director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation told The News.

Tim Lueckenhoff, president of the Association of Boxing Commissions, a regulatory board, believes that Texas rubber-stamped his license, motivated by the chance to make money for the state.

"It's all about the dollars," Lueckenhoff said. "Any state would love to have that fight simply because of the economy right now. That's what it's all about: jamming some people into the big stadium and making those sales-tax dollars."

Source: nydailynews.com