Billy’s Boxing Blog

By William Trillo
Photos By Naoki Fukada

For everyone who wanted to see Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KO’s) get what they felt he had coming to him, and there were many, Saturday night should have made them happy. Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KO’s) overcame a huge difference in size and crushed the brave Mexican Warriors face, literally. Not only did Tony suffer a crushed orbital bone in his cheek but it seems he had his nose fractured as well. Sergio Diaz, Tony’s co-manager, said Sunday that an eye muscle is lodged in that fracture and needs to be surgically repaired. Manny’s dominance over the bigger foe was more than stunning, not that most didn’t expect him to win, but the beating he put on Margarito was off the charts.

Eye muscle lodged in the fracture?? Yow!!

For those who wanted to see the return of their hero Margarito, and again there were many, they can say that their brave warrior gave Pacquiao “the hardest fight in his boxing career”, and that when faced with an insurmountable task, he never quit. It’s a moral victory at best for legion of “Tornado” fans. After the fight Margarito said when asked if he thought about quitting, “No, I am a Mexican who fights to the end.”

Yes, Margarito fought to the end and although that will gain the admiration of some, it will also garner a huge amount of second guessing, mostly of his corner that maybe should have stepped in and stopped this fight long before the final bell rang. When asked about this after the fight Maragarito’s trainer Robert Garcia insisted he never considered stopping the carnage although he clearly warned Margarito he was getting ready to end it.

As I watched the fight from the comfort of my PPV seat at home I was not shocked when the fighter’s weights were announced. It was clear Tony’s plan was to come in the bigger man and at 165 pounds on fight day he had accomplished that task. With Manny weighing a mere 148 pounds he was giving away 17 pounds.

Now factor in the fact that the fighters had agreed to wear 8 ounce Reyes gloves!

8 ounce gloves?

Commissions in most states only allow 8 ounce gloves for fighters up to 147 pounds. For safety reasons fights sanctioned over 147 use 10 ounce gloves by rule. Basically Manny would be fighting a Super Middleweight wearing 8 ounce gloves. On paper that combination seemed heavily stacked in Margarito’s favor. In hindsight I am guessing Margarito wished he went with the 10 ouncers and I have a feeling we will never see him compete in 8 ounce gloves again.

The pre-fight drama in both lockers rooms was to be expected. How is Manny wrapping his hands? What is dark liquid that Margarito is drinking and what was that substance they poured in his drink? It was all a lot of posturing to me and it was taking away from a very good fight that was going on in the meantime, (Jones vs. Soto-Karass).

As to the fight itself, the scorecards only tell part of the story. At 120-108, 118-110, 119-109, Pacquiao clearly won darn near every round and no one including yours truly is denying that, my scorecard matched the judge who had it 119-109. But as Pacquiao said after the fight, “Margarito is really tough and strong and I felt it, he’s big, bigger than me.” The lumps on Manny’s face confirmed that, he was in a real fight against a big and strong fighter, make no mistake about that. Pacquiao was hurt and he said so himself, “I never expected him to be as strong as he was but the truth is he is really strong and I got hurt. He hurt me in the body when I was on the ropes and with uppercuts to the face. I am so lucky tonight!”

Truth be told, luck had nothing to do with it.

As Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said, “Manny Pacquiao is the greatest fighter I’ve ever seen.” That’s pretty high praise from a guy who started promoting fights after watching a guy named Cassius Clay perform.  After witnessing what Pacquiao did to Margarito Saturday night I would say he is worthy of that praise….maybe more.

From the beginning Pacquiao was in control and was dictating the fight but Margarito was in the mix. The reason for that was although Pac’s punches were landing hard they did not do the kind of damage that would put Margarito down. Instead the damage was cumulative, those little 8 ounce gloves where dropping small well placed deposits on Maragito’s grill, 401 deposits to be exact, that would pay huge dividends by the 10^th round (The afore mentioned eye muscle lodged into the fracture comes to mind here).

Before the payoff, in round 6 Pacquiao found himself in a very precarious position, Margarito was landing and a body blow nearly turned the fight, “He got me with a good body shot”, Pacquiao remarked, “it was really painful and I’m lucky to survive that round.”

Again, luck had nothing to do with it, and if anyone was lucky to survive it was Margarito.

“In the ninth and tenth round, I looked at Margarito’s eye and I felt pity for him because his eye was getting closed,” Manny said, “He had a really bad cut on the right eye.”

Chances are Pacquiao could have finished off Margarito in the final rounds but it was more than obvious he was taking it easy on Tony. Trainer Freddie Roach said Manny carried Margaritio in the final 2 rounds and anyone who saw the fight would be hard pressed to argue with that statement.

Through it all, and in the hardest fight of his life, Pacquiao not only prevailed but he put himself on a plateau that will be hard for anyone to match for a very long time….if ever.

When asked about what he will do next, and more to the point, what about Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny said, “I don’t want to talk about Floyd Mayweather!”

Manny has put himself in a position where he doesn’t have to talk about Floyd, but on the flip side, I would love to hear what Floyd has to say about Manny now!

What’s Next?

The obvious question is what is next for both fighters? Will Manny continue to go up in weight and keep fighting bigger guys? Will Margarito ever be the same and will he fight again? The answer to these questions is anyone’s guess.

Here’s my two cents if you care.

Manny Pacquiao can do pretty much whatever the heck he wants. Of course there are those who would love to see him fight the winner of Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez to capture a 9^th title. Others from South of The Border still insist that Juan Manuel Marquez beat Manny in both their previous fights, (although the record clearly shows otherwise), and if Marquez gets by Katsidis this month you can expect a groundswell of support for a Pacquiao vs. Marquez rematch. There are a plethora of 140 pound fighters who would make for a decent fight, but seriously I don’t see any of these guys beating Manny. And then of course there is Floyd Mayweather Jr.  Considering everything we have seen from “The Pretty Boy” in the past few months and after Saturday nights overwhelming beat down, I am very sure Mayweather wants no part of that and we will NEVER see this much ballyhooed Super Fight get made.

Antonio Margarito obviously needs a long break but it appears his next fight could very well be for another 154 pound title. That’s right Margarito haters, Bob Arum was telling people in the post fight press room in Dallas that a rematch with WBA Jr. Middle Camp Miguel Cotto is very likely. Now, I know you Tony bashers won’t like this idea at first. Like Jim Lampley, most of you think Margarito fought Cotto with loaded gloves. But think about it… Why wouldn’t you want Cotto to seek vengeance on a level playing field, if in fact your theory is true? Personally I think this could be a very evenly matched and competitive fight. Both fighters are coming off serious beatings and may have lost a step or two (maybe three), but sometimes the best fights are waged when two warriors just a bit past their prime step into the ring. They have just enough skill to perform on the big stage, lost enough skill to take punches they normally would not and just enough heart to fight to the end. If Cotto and Margarito have shown us anything it’s that they are willing to fight to the bloody finish. I, for one, hope this fight happens.

The Undercard
Photos By Chris Farina Top-Rank

Welterweight Mike Jones (23-0, 18 KO’s) learned a huge lesson on Saturday night and he is lucky to get out with a split decision victory over the hard nosed and iron jawed Jesus Soto-Karass (24-5-3,16 KO’s). Apparently no one in Philly did their homework on the West Coast Mexican Karass. After stunning Karass in round 2, Jones jumped on his foe and threw everything at him until he ran out of gas…every drop. Jones had nothing left and this is exactly where Karass wanted him.

The next 12 rounds were nip and tuck, bloody and pretty darn exciting. It’s really too bad HBO decided to jack around with the locker room shenanigans of Roach and Garcia because they were broadcasting a very good fight. Jones ended up taking a split decision,  94-94, 95-94, 97-93.

Someone needs to tell Guillermo Rigondeaux (7-0, 5 KO’s) that this isn’t Cuba and he is no longer boxing with Olympic style rules. After going down in round 4, Ricardo Cordoba (37-3-2, 23KO’s) tagged and dropped Rigondaux in the 6th. From that point on Guillermo did his best “De La Hoya fighting Trinidad” impersonation and it almost cost him the fight and it certainly cost him some fans. Scores read 114-112 for Cordoba and 117-109 and 114-112 for Rigondeaux.

Brandon Rios (26-0-1, 18 KO’s) didn’t make weight nor did he make himself any friends or fans earlier in the week when a vulgar video of him hit the internet and he most likely didn’t impress anyone with his fifth round victory over Omri Lowther (14-3,10 KO’s).  I really don’t have too much more to say on this one, Rios irratates me. I hear if Humberto Soto wins next month they are set to fight each other next year. I hope Soto caves Rios head in.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 15th, 2010 at 4:17 am and is filed under Boxing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.