Antonio Margarito back in action on May 26th

By Boxing News - 04/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Antonio Margarito back in action on May 26thBy Dan Ambrose: For boxing fans interested in seeing former IBF/WBA/WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (38-8, 27 KO’s) fight again, he’ll be reportedly back in action next month on May 26th at the Casino del Sol in Tuscon, Arizona against an opponent still to be determined, according to boxing news from RingTV.

Margarito will have to likely change his fighting style in order to keep from getting hit so much around his right eye. This is the eye where Margarito suffered a fractured orbital bone in his loss to Manny Pacquiao in December 2010. Margarito required three separate surgeries on the eye before he was able to return to action last December after a year out of the ring. Although his promoter Bob Arum said the eye was as good as new basically, the skin around his eye apparently wasn’t because it swelled up almost immediately when Cotto started landing shots on it last December in their rematch.

It’s something that will likely continue to be a problem for Margarito for the remainder of his career and his manager Sergio Diaz said according to ringtv that Margarito may have to make changes to his fighting style in order to keep from having further problems with his right eye. It’s hard to imagine Margarito being able to keep from getting hit, because his whole fighting style is centered around him being aggressive and coming forward. There’s no way Margarito can succeed if he’s forced to fight defensively. He’s too slow and he lacks the one-punch power needed for him to find success with a new fighting style.

Don’t count on Margarito being put in with anyone particularly good, though, because this will likely be a stay busy fight for him while he waits for a bigger fight for him to open up. Margarito, 34, wants to fight a rematch against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, who beat him by a 10th round stoppage last December in a fight where Margarito’s surgically operated on right eye closed up completely.

It was unfortunate that the ringside doctor decided to halt the fight when he did because the fight appeared to be following the same story lines as the first fight with Cotto dominating the action until the 9th round and then starting to take punishment. Margarito wanted to continue fighting into the 10th and there’s a good chance that he would have gotten to Cotto in the last three rounds even with only good eye.



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