By Esteban Garduno: I can’t wait to see former IBF welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27 KO’s) back in the ring ripping up his competition with his trademark high volume offense. Margarito is a warrior and has been missed by many during this past year since he lost his boxing license after the Shane Mosley fight. Margarito, 31, will be fighting on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey fight on March 13th, provided Margarito is given his boxing license by the Texas Athletic Commission.

Margarito should be getting his license back, because he’s served his year suspension and is eligible to get his license to fight back. Margarito will be facing Carson Jones, a good 2nd tier fighter who likes to slug. This is the perfect opponent for Margarito. He won’t have to chase him around the ring or deal with constantly clinching like he did in his last fight against Shane Mosley in January 2009.

Margarito lost that fight by a 9th round stoppage, but I think the last had more to do with the trouble that Margarito had in making weight for the fight against Mosley. Also, the stuff that took place before the fight with the hand wraps being discovered to have an illegal foreign substance wouldn’t have helped matters any. That kind of thing would throw off any fighter. Besides that, the referee let Mosley get away with a ton of clinching without warning him or taking off points.

I think Margarito is going to re-establish himself as one of the top fighters in the welterweight division in 2010, first with a win over Jones and then a big money fight against Manny Pacquiao. I think Margarito can beat Pacquiao. Margarito’s promoter, Bob Arum, needs to work on putting together Margarito-Cotto II.

That fight will do really well with the boxing public, and I think Cotto needs to try and step back up to the plate to see if he can do better than last when he was stopped in the 11th round by Margarito. I doubt the outcome would be any different next time around, but it would be great to see Cotto try to avenge the defeat.

At the same time, it will give Margarito a chance to prove that he beat Cotto fair and square without anything in his hand wraps. People have been hinting that Margarito may have had loaded hand wraps for his win against Cotto in July 2008, and I think that is nonsense. But people will talk anyway until Margarito is given a chance to prove himself again against Cotto.

Margarito needs to be given a second chance. If people who have been caught using steroids are given a second chance, then a person who unknowingly had a plaster-like substance in his hand wraps deserves a second change. Both of them are just as dangerous in my view. You can’t be letting people back in boxing after being caught using steroids and then keeping people with loaded gloves out. That doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t think it’s fair. Let the warrior back in and prove himself that he beat those fighters fair square.