Boxing News

Antonio Margarito will not fight in Mexico

July 30, 2009

It was said that former three-time welterweight champion Antonio Margarito will fight in September in his hometown but now the “Tijuana Tornado” doesn’t want to fight unless the fight takes place in the United States and the only way that it will ever happen is if the California State Athletic Commission returns his boxing license.

Margarito’s legal team is trying to get him back in the ring as soon as possible. Margarito can re-apply for his license in February 2010 but keep in mind that the CSAC can still turn down his request. Fighting in Mexico is only going to piss off the CSAC.

“I have been training for a long time and waiting to see if they tell me that I can return in September. But it all depends if I get my license back,” Margarito told the The Record. “It’s been six months since my license was suspended and I know that I am innocent, so I don’t want to fight in Mexico anymore because my situation could worsen further in the U.S. and I prefer to wait a little {longer}.”

With Margarito’s legal team fighting to get his license back, HBO is airing a documentary on Billy Collins Jr. against Luis Resto titled”Assault in the Ring”.

This documentary revisits one of boxing darkest hours as Resto surprisingly defeated Collins–but was discovered to have removed half the padding from his gloves. The ensuing scandal rocked the sport and landed Resto and his trainer in prison, while Collins would die in a car crash less than a year later.

I personally think airing this documentary is not in favor of Margarito, not that I support what his trainer tried to do. Javier Capetillo inserted an illegal knuckle pad that contained traces of Plaster of Paris into Margarito’s hand wraps before a fight against Shane Mosley on Jan. 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Had the illegal pad not been discovered, Mosley could have been seriously injured and Margarito could have had his next 25 years much like Luis Resto in prison. I am not saying what Capetillo did was right, but I think Resto did much worse, he had an ounce of the stuffing pulled out of each of his eight-ounce gloves and his hand wraps tampered with. He was also drinking a mixed water that had medicine used to treat asthma to open up the lungs and allow him to get more oxygen during the fight.

Fortunately for Margarito, Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson, suspected something was amiss and demanded that Margarito’s hands be rewrapped. Richardson’s insistence led to the discovery of the potentially lethal pad. Thanks to Richardson Margarito did NOT used the illegal hand wraps and thanks to him maybe one day the “Tijuana Tornado” will once again in step in the ring in U.S. soil.