Will Pacquiao fight Margarito outside the United States?

By Boxing News - 07/09/2010 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: There’s a possibility that WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao could still wind up fighting two-time welterweight champion Antonio Margarito next or at least in the near future. Margarito, 32, failed to get his boxing license renewed by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Friday. They voted 4-1 against Margarito getting his boxing license back. Margarito has been advised to to apply to the California Athletic Commission, the ones who took Margarito’s boxing license back a year ago after a foreign substance was found on Margarito’s hand wraps before his 9th round TKO loss to Shane Mosley in January 2009.

Margarito’s promoter Bob Arum probably should have saved Margarito some time and effort by having him apply to the California Commission rather than the time-wasting effort at trying to get it with the Nevada Athletic Commission. But, Margarito could still end up facing Pacquiao if Arum is willing to take the fight outside of the United States. I never would have thought that this would be possible, as it seems like the much better option would be for Pacquiao to fight Margarito in the United States, where they would have an excellent chance of selling out the 100,000 seat Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

But by taking the fight outside of the U.S, it would seem that Arum isn’t willing to wait for Margarito to eventually get his boxing license back from the California Commission. Arum needs to make the Margarito-Pacquiao fight happen soon, because Margarito is aging and hasn’t looked good in his last two fights. And Pacquiao could retire at any time and focus exclusively on his political career in the Phillipines.

There’s talk of Pacquiao’s team of being interesting in a fight outside of the U.S. against Margarito. It’s unclear whether that would be an option for Pacquiao’s next fight in November or something beyond that point. Probably the most likely option is for Pacquiao to fight a rematch against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, so that Manny can go after an 8th world title while Cotto still has his bet. That would be the idea situation, as Cotto is small at 5’7″ for the division, and he could have big problems if he was to have to defend his WBA title against one of the sluggers in the junior middleweight division like Alfredo Angulo, who would be like a more powerful version of Margarito. It might be wiser for Pacquiao to take the shot against Cotto before he gets knocked out again and loses his WBA title.



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