What to Make of Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito?
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What to make of Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito? The Friday before last, Team Mayweather handed Bob Arum and Top Rank a bunch of lemons. Instead of trying to make lemonade, Arum passed the lemons off to boxing fans in the form of Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito. Now it’s up to the boxing community to determine what to do with them. During his now-infamous conference call, Arum made it clear that his intentions were to pursue fights with possible opponents other than Mayweather, specifically Miguel Cotto or Margarito. Less than two weeks later the “Tijuana Tornado” emerged as the next opponent for the Filipino Congressman. In fighting Pacquiao (51-3, 38 KO) on November 13, Margarito (38-6, 27 KO) is receiving a “hand-wrapped” gift from Arum and Top Rank. In taking care of his own, Arum is granting Margarito what will most likely amount to the biggest pay day of his career. He is awarding “Tony” the chance of a lifetime simply for fighting under the Top Rank banner. During his conference call, responding to an inquiry about a potential Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight, Arum immediately dismissed the possibility. “Tim Bradley is a tremendous fighter and he’s a great young man,” Arum said. “But the problem with a guy like Tim Bradley is that even though you and I know what a superb fighter he is, the public really doesn’t know.” He continued, “The other promoters don’t really promote their fighters. They take money from HBO or Showtime or a little Indian casino and they think they’re doing the kid a big service. I’m not going to give them a free ride on the work we have done.” That same logic applied to a question about a potential Paul Williams fight with Pacquiao. “Paul Williams is a tremendous fighter – a great fighter, but he hasn’t been promoted correctly — he doesn’t have any following, can’t sell any tickets,” Arum said. “Nobody is financing the pay-per-view fight. On an HBO fight – HBO pays the money. I’m the one that’s financing the pay-per-view and don’t want to give anyone a free ride.” Arum’s thinking, which in this specific case is reasonable, has ultimately left us with a mid-Autumn clash between Pacquiao and Margarito. It has also left us disappointed with the realization that a Mayweather-Pacquiao superfight won’t be taking place any time this calendar year. It’s left us with a decision about what to do with these lemons. It’s true that Margarito, or as many in the fistic community have comically renamed him, “Margacheato”, was caught with loaded hand-wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley. It’s also true that he doesn’t deserve the big pay day that will come when he faces the world’s number one pound-for-pound boxer. Margarito is a cheater who was caught and is still being punished. He is a fighter who, presumably, was willing to endanger the lives of his opponents for a win inside the ring. He is still not licensed to prizefight in the United States ] and the last time most boxing fans saw him, he was being battered around the ring for nine rounds by Mosley. So what are we to make of Pacquiao-Margarito? Lemonade? Let me try. Margarito is a battle tested warrior. Having suffered early defeats in his career, Margarito had to work twice as hard to prove the crooked numbers in the loss column were due to the fact that he turned professional at the ripe young age of 15, not necessarily due to lack of skill. After years of compiling win after win, Margarito fought his way to the top. He has held, at some point or another, the WBA, WBO, and IBF welterweight championships. He walks through the best punches his opponents have to offer just so he can fire off a few of his own. This past decade alone, Margarito has stopped Sergio Martinez, Antonio Diaz, and twice stopped Kermit Cintron. He was awarded a decision over Joshua Clottey. He has battled in tough losses against Paul Williams and Daniel Santos, proving that even in defeat, he still possesses the heart of a true Mexican warrior. He has fought in fights that looked like they belonged in bars, specifically the hellacious brawl with Miguel Cotto — a fight that left Cotto’s face almost unrecognizable. Truth be told, plaster-wraps aside, Margarito is an entertaining fighter to watch. To add to the fan-friendly style of Margarito is the always- entertaining Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao, the seven division world champion and current WBO welterweight champion, is the world’s number one pound-for-pound fighter and arguably the most entertaining boxer on the globe. Pacquiao’s “Energizer Bunny” style is enough to draw most boxing fans’ interest. In recent years, Pacquiao’s domination of opponents has tended to end fights in spectacular fashion — such as the Ricky Hatton knockout, Cotto stoppage, and David Diaz knockout. But even in fights where the endings weren’t as exciting, Pacquiao is still a pleasure to watch. Take the Clottey fight, for instance. It was a fight that was dominated by Pacquiao from the opening bell, a fight in which Clottey suffered a slow, twelve round death. In a unanimous decision win, where two judges somehow awarded Clottey a single round, Pacquiao still made the fight entertaining. Pacquiao’s tireless work-rate was something to marvel at. He averaged over 100 purposeful punches a round throughout the twelve round bout and finished the fight looking like the he could fight twelve more. Any time the best fighter in the world is fighting, I am going to be watching. It’s as simple as that. The number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world versus a Mexican warrior, who can take an inordinate amount of punishment, but always seems to dish out just more than he receives. This has all the makings to be an intriguing fight. End of squeezing lemons. Do I buy into the hype I just tried to create in an attempt to excite myself? I’m not so sure. But at least I was trying to make lemonade. With the immediate dismissal of a potential Bradley or Williams fight with Pacquiao, that’s more than Arum and Top Rank can say. They simply handed off the lemons to boxing fans to let us decide what to make of them. Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank.