Manny Pacquiao Vs Antonio Margarito: Disappointing the Boxing World
By Delroy Hill (Managing Editor’s Note: Delroy Hill is our newest Feature Writer at RSR. I, along with the rest of the team, welcome him aboard!)
On November 13th, Manny Pacquiao, 51-3-2, 38 KO’s, will face Antonio Margarito, 38-6, 27 KO’s, for the vacant WBC Junior Middleweight Championship. Many fans are disappointed in this fight, including myself.
Here, I will lay out the reasons why and give my opinion.
To start, just about every boxing fan in the world would like to see the top pound for pound fighters in the world meet in the ring. With two rounds of failed negotiations, and both sides to blame, the world will have to wait to see the clash between unbeaten Floyd “Money” Mayweather, JR., and Manny Pacquiao.
Since these two fighters were unable to reach an agreement, we have to settle for Pacquiao versus Margarito at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Judging by each fighter’s history in the ring, this looks like a great fight. Both fighters have proven to be tough warriors who are willing to take punches to land their own, which usually makes for exciting back and forth action. Also, these two pugilists have shown an ability to throw upwards of one hundred punches per round for twelve full rounds.
Many fans around the world are disappointed in the fact that the vacant junior middleweight title is up for grabs in this fight, and rightly so. Pacquiao has never even fought in the 154 pound division, but was immediately given a shot at the title.
Forget his pound for pound status, and popularity, what has he done to deserve the title?
Margarito, for his part, is coming off a unanimous decision victory over unknown Roberto Garcia. In that fight Margarito employed a style much different than fans are used to seeing from him. He stayed on the outside and used his jab a lot. He faced Sugar Shane Mosley before that, and was caught with illegal hand wraps prior to entering the ring.
What followed was a masterful destruction at the hands of Mosley, and a one year suspension for “The Tijuana Tornado”.
The best win of his career, an 11th round brutal TKO of then unbeaten WBA World Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto has since been clouded with speculation. Aside from his victory over Garcia, Margarito has never looked good at 154 pounds.
So what has he done to earn the title shot?
Top Rank, promoter of both fighters, has done a great job at making each of Pacquiao’s fights since moving up to the welterweight division look like an impossible fight for him to win. To his credit, all of the opponents he has faced in the 147 pound division have had a considerable size advantage over Pac Man.
While enjoying this advantage, they have all entered their fights with Pacquiao coming off of very recent defeat, or an unimpressive victory. “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya lost to Mayweather, JR. and scraped by with a tough unanimous victory over fringe contender Steve Forbes.
Miguel Cotto was crushed by Margarito just sixteen months before facing Pacquiao. Joshua Clottey came into his fight with Pacquiao after a loss to Cotto, and put on one of the worst performances in history, basically being a heavy bag for Pacquiao who threw over 1200 punches in the fight.
Again, Top Rank has the Filipino star fighting someone much taller and naturally bigger than himself. Bob Arum mentioned having nightmares of Pacquiao losing to Margarito to drum up more interest in the criticized fight. But don’t be fooled. Pacquiao has a tremendous speed advantage in this fight. He throws punches from many different angles and can throw punches constantly.
Margarito is a big, plodding, come forward fighter who will be there to hit. His defense is basically taking flush shots on the chin and being able to walk through them, while throwing his powerful combinations. The only problem here is, that strong chin was “cracked ” in early 2009, by a 38 year old Mosley.
He beat Margarito to the punch all night long. Manny’s speed is much better than Mosley at this stage and he will overwhelm Margarito.
Don’t be surprised if Tony is stopped earlier than he was against Mosley.