By Eric Thomas: Former WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito isn’t interested in fighting a rematch with middleweight Sergio Martinez, according to Boxing Talk. Margarito stopped Martinez in the 7th round 10 years ago in 2000, and Martinez, the WBC/WBO middleweight champion, recently expressed interest in wanting to avenge his defeat. It’s a fight that would have done really well and Margarito’s promoter Bob Arum could have put the fight at the Cowboy and it probably would have would have sold well.

However, Margarito apparently declined the fight. You can guess why. Margarito is hoping to get a big money fight against fellow Top Rank fighter Manny Pacquiao if Manny is unable to line up a fight against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. Margarito would then be the backup plan for Arum to put in against Pacquiao if the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight doesn’t go down. Margarito fought for the first time in over a year earlier this month in defeating Roberto Garcia by a one-sided 10 round decision in Mexico.

Margarito changed his fighting style completely, throwing less punches and using a lot of movement, short combinations and jabs to dominate Garcia. It’s not an improvement in terms of excitement, but it did work well enough for the slow punching Margarito to dominate him. Perhaps another reason why Margarito has opted not to fight Martinez is because Martinez has gotten bigger and a lot better since he last fought Margarito 10 years ago. Martinez was all over the place in that fight, throwing a lot of punches, tiring himself out and displaying little power.

Martinez is a lot stronger now and much smarter in the ring. Margarito would likely have a very tough time trying to beat Martinez and I could see him losing to him. Margarito was badly schooled in a 9th round TKO defeat to Shane Mosley last year. Margarito had his boxing license revoked after that fight due to a plaster like substance being found on his hand wraps before the fight. However, Margarito remains popular in the Mexican community.