Pacquiao & Margarito

13
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Fighting for the WBC Super Welterweight Belt

The big blitz is on!

For all you MyBoxingFans readers, here’s a quick look at today’s news conference announcing the mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito taking place on November 13 at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Held at the prestigious Beverly Hills Hotel, the fighters were flanked by their promoter, trainers and managers and surrounded by a huge turnout that came out to welcome the boxers on this very first stop of their media tour.

Promoted by Top Rank, along with Cowboys stadium and MP Promotions, the upcoming clash is already building steam at an extremely rapid pace. I could already feel the buzz and excitement that this match has created from media and fans alike at today’s luncheon. It’s a good thing that HBO will be doing their “24/7” series on the two since the next ten and a half weeks will be filled with non-stop Pacman-Tijuana Tornado talk–24/7!

While the two stars collided onstage, both sluggers remained relaxed and smiling throughout the speeches and photo ops as Top Rank President Bob Arum, trainers Robert Garcia and Alex Ariza, and others on the dais watched on as the Filipino and Mexican superstars each took their turn at the podium. Pacquiao’s coach Freddie Roach is traveling back from the Ukraine but the camp said the Hall of Fame trainer will rejoin the team tomorrow in New York for the East Coast press conference. The excitement will conclude in Dallas on Friday when the pair of pugilists will make appearances at the actual fight venue, Cowboys Stadium.

Also in attendance was the World Boxing Council’s Executive Secretary General Mauricio Sulaiman, who brought the green and gold belt that will be awarded to the victor of this championship fight. On the line is a gleaming WBC Super Welterweight world title up for grabs, a title that was vacated by Sergio Martinez when he moved up to defeat Kelly Pavlik.

Yes, Manny Pacquiao will be tipping the scales at 154 as he squares off against Antonio Margarito, which means the Congressman/Boxer will look for his eighth title in eight weight divisions.

And while the shorter boxer didn’t exactly see eye to eye with his ring foe, both men kept a firm grip on that championship belt. For Margarito, this will be his return to the ropes on U.S. soil. Look for both men ready for battle.

It was also announced today that tickets for the super fight will go on sale September 18th.

You can expect the boxing buzz to only pick up steam as November 13 nears as the blitz continues!

Photos by Michele Chong

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Michele Chong
Michele Chong has been involved in the sport of boxing for over a decade. Her “Chatter Box” column covers a variety of subjects in both professional and amateur boxing, and features exclusive one-on-one interviews, recaps of fight events, shows and tournaments, book/film reviews and much more. Inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008, she is also a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, Golden State Boxer’s Association and the Burbank Boxing Club. Michele is also involved in many non-profit and charitable organizations.

13 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t see this being better than Kessler vs Froch. To me, that’s the fight of the year so far. I do expect Margarito to come and fight not like Joshua Clottey. Margarito will do better than most people think he will. I’ve always said that you can’t be a part time fighter. Pacquiao is a congressman so their is a distraction. Let’s wait and see if Pacquiao can perform just as well at super welter weight. Remember that he was forced to eat against De La Hoya just to be a welerweight. Now he has to jump yet another weight class. Should be interesting.

  2. We have to be realistic here, I will be cheering for Margarito, I am fan of Pacquiao’s performances but before “the wraps” I was a big fan of Margarito, and even with my mix feelings about the whole thing I wont turn my back on Tony, but as much I would like Margarito to win, if we analyze where the two fighters are in their careers today we can all agree it will be damn hard for Margarito to win this fight, he has lost a lot in the last couple of years.

    Tony got KO brutally for the first time by Mosley, lost his super star champion status and much more with what was about to happen after that fight, hasn’t really been fighting since then, while on the other hand Pacquiao a few months before that faithful Margarito fight had beaten De la Hoya to retirement, brutally KO Hatton, and gave the Cotto the beating of his life, (worst in my opinion that when he fought Margarito) and got an easy win against Clottey.

    Pacquiao has been actively and successfully fighting the whole time Margarito was wondering if he would ever fight again in the US.
    On top of that we don’t know if Margarito has lost something along the way with the punishment that Mosley inflected on him and he is a lot slower than Pacquiao.

    I’m not being pessimistic, I’m just saying how I see it, if this fight would have happen 3 years ago, I would put all my money on Margarito, but right now? I hope for a miracle.

  3. I’m with you on that, we have to be realistic, and as much as I want Tony to win, is going to be damn difficult, speed kills, Pacquiao is twice as fast as Margarito.

  4. being Mexican,I’m rooting for Margarito, but if he couldn’t handle Mosley’s speed I doubt he will be able to handle Pac-man….

  5. Could well be fight of the year, so far Pacquiao has shown he has never been afraid to stand toe to toe with every fighter he has faced.

    Could he do this with a man of Margaritto stature.

    That alone will be something to behold, small 5’6 guy fighting a 5’11 guy outweighing him by over a stone but the little guy is not just out boxing him he overpowering him, standing there and trading and making Marg take the backward steps and folding under the pressure.

    Pacquiao is too goo for his own good, if Juan Diaz said he was going to take on Margaritto people would say it was a mammoth task and Diaz could well take a beating. This is the same Diaz who the same people say Pacquiao ducked.

    This is going to be Pacquiao toughest fight and the Pacquiao vs Margarito could be FOTY

  6. @MexicanMafia
    he will .I think he will make an emphatic message to all the haters .
    He will punish manny badly .Mark my words .
    he will afflict a lot if physical damage on manny specially face .even manny wins ,it’s going to be at high cost that will make manny cosider staying in boxing.
    You will see manny’s face bloody regardless the outcome of the bout.In my opinion this the only fighter that can damage manny .
    Margarito is not going stay there like clotty .He is waiting for this fight to make a STATEMENT and
    a sad one to a lot of manny’s fans .

    Go margarito

  7. Both fighters will carve their own history in the boxing world. If Marga will win, he’ll be drawing the biggest upset of the year or maybe of the decade… but if Pacquiao wins, it’ll be the 8th title in 8 different weight divisions.

    Wow this is exciting! I can’t wait to watch this!

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