Margarito has nothing to lose against Pacquiao!!!!

LOS ANGELES—Manny Pacquiao doesn’t see eye to eye with Antonio Margarito, literally and figuratively.

Still, Pacquiao, who stands a shade below 5-foot-7 and had to look up just to stare at the eyes of the 5-foot-11 Margarito during the start of their promotional tour, is willing to give his disgraced Mexican foe another shot at redemption.

“Give him one more chance,” Pacquiao said. “He is human, he made a mistake. People are worried about me fighting this guy. We are going to give him a chance.”

Pacquiao and Margarito are scheduled to clash on Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, a fight that should earn the Philippine congressman at least $15 million.

Margarito is coming off a one-year ban from boxing after being caught with illegal substances in his hand wraps during a fight with Shane Mosley 19 months ago. His fight against the Filipino ring icon is the biggest in his comeback trail.

8th boxing title

With the World Boxing Council super welterweight title at stake, Pacquiao also has a shot at an eighth weight division crown. He already has etched his name in history books after becoming the first boxer to win titles in seven weight classes after claiming the World Boxing Organization welterweight title of Miguel Cotto last year.

For Margarito, Pacquiao is his ticket to redemption after being vilified and sanctioned for the illegal hand wraps.

“I’ve been asking for this fight for a long time,” Margarito said. “I’m very happy and motivated that it’s here. I want to thank Manny for taking this fight. Everything that has happened is in the past, we’re now in the present. It’s time to show everyone that I’m still very good and nobody will want to miss this fight. It’ll be a great fight and now is the present; forget the past.”

Illegal hand wraps

Margarito has denied knowledge that illegal substances were being put in his hand wraps, causing them to harden and adding a lot of zing to his punches.

But in an interview with the Inquirer just before leaving the Philippines, Pacquiao said he was certain Margarito knowingly cheated with the hand wraps.

“It’s his hands and he watches the taping,” Pacquiao told the Inquirer on Monday, adding that Margarito is feigning ignorance because he is “looking for a way out so his reputation won’t be damaged among his fans.”

However, Pacquiao noted that Margarito had “paid his dues by sacrificing and not fighting for one year.

“I hope he learned his lesson and will not repeat the same mistake.”

Margarito was granted a license last week to fight in Texas. He hasn’t fought in America since the Los Angeles Mosley incident after his license—along with that of former trainer Javier Capetillo—was revoked by the California State Athletic Commission for the hand wraps controversy. The ban was upheld by other state boxing commissions.

Team Pacquiao, though, isn’t taking any chances, pointing out that “we can watch his hands being wrapped because our agreement is we will have two representatives led by my coach (Freddie Roach) to watch the taping.”

Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) has asked officials to allow them to send an extra person from his camp into Margarito’s dressing room prior to the Dallas fight to observe the taping.

“I am requesting that two people be allowed to watch them bandage his hands,” the 31-year-old Pacquiao said.

Nothing to hide

Margarito’s trainer, Robert Garcia, said he had nothing to hide. He said Pacquiao may visit Margarito’s dressing room before the fight. He would also let Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach do the wrapping.

“Manny can come watch himself if he needs to,” Garcia said. “I do not have a problem with that. I could have Freddie Roach do the wrapping. I don’t do anything illegal.

“I know very few people give us a chance.”

It is unlike Pacquiao to fire the first verbal salvo in a pre-fight news conference but the Filipino did just that Tuesday.

Pacquiao was all smiles and joking with Margarito during a photo-op on the podium at Beverly Hills Hotel but then told reporters afterward that he didn’t believe Margarito’s version of the events at Staples Center arena 19 months ago.

His comments also contradicted Top Rank chief and Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, who spent a good portion of his time at the podium on Tuesday defending his decision to put the Filipino in the ring with the disgraced boxer.

“Antonio Margarito did not know that those hand wraps were illegal, and there was something bad in those wraps,” Arum said. “(There’s) not one shred of proof.

“He served his time, and thank God, the people in the Texas boxing commission, who reviewed all the testimony, agreed with that conclusion,” he added.

Source: inquirer.net