By Chris Williams: Earlier today, Antonio Margarito and his trainer Javier Capetillon had their boxing licenses revoked by the California State Athletic Commission at a hearing in Van Nuys, California, over an issue involving Margarito’s hand wraps before his fight with Shane Mosley on January 24th. Originally, Mosley’s trainer Nazim Richardson felt something was suspicious about Margarito’s hand wraps when he went into the dressing room of Margarito prior to the fight to check out his hand wraps.
He then discovered a hardened material inside of the knuckle pad. The material was wet and harder in some areas than others. According to Margarito’s trainer, he had grabbed the wrong wrapping when he put them on Margarito before the fight, mistakenly putting on a wrapping that had already been used previously by another fighter. Whatever the case, the excuse didn’t fly with the commission, who went ahead and revoked Capetillo’s boxing license anyway for one year.
Margarito maintained through his attorney that he wasn’t aware of any irregularities with his hand wraps. However, Margarito had his license revoked anyway for one year, at which point he can try and get his license to box reinstated. He could possibly box out of the country if he so chooses, as this applies only to California and any states that back up the ruling of the commission.
This license revocation effectively takes a lot of air out of the once promising career of Margarito, who before losing to Mosley by a 9th round TKO on January 24th, was one of the premier welterweights in the division and who had a large and growing fan base around the U.S.
Whether it will be a simple case of Margarito getting his license back when applying, after his year-long license revocation has completed, is unknown. If he’s unable to get his license to box back after a year, then he’ll have no other choice but to try and continue his career fighting out of the country. Given his talent and popularity, he would likely be a big hit in Canada or possibly Germany, the latter being a place well known for adopting talented fighters from other parts of the world.
If Germany were to get Margarito, he could probably do quite well over there feasting on lesser talented European boxers, getting the benefit of any close decisions and living well. Many German boxers never leave the country, content to fight there against European fodder rather than travel to other parts of the world and take bigger risks.