By Jim Dower: According to Michael Marley of Examiner.com, Manny Pacquiao likes the idea of fighting Antonio Margarito in Mexico on November 13th rather than Las Vegas, Nevada because of the money that Pacquiao will save by fighting in Mexico. Pacquiao’s personal adviser Michael Koncz says “Manny loves the people at the MGM Grand and they’ve treated him well, but it becomes an economic decisions. There’s a 35 percent tax burden for Manny to shoulder in America but not in Mexico and that adds up.” Someone really needs to tell Top Rank promoter Bob Arum about Pacquiao’s feelings on this matter, because he’s working his hardest right now in trying to get Margarito’s boxing license back in the United States just so that Arum can stage the Pacquiao-Margarito fight in America.

I don’t know who has more pool with Pacquiao – Koncz or Arum – but I’d be willing to be that whatever Arum wants in terms of the location for the Margarito-Pacquiao fight, that’s what he’ll get. If I was Pacquiao, I would go for the fight in Mexico in a second, but Pacquiao seems to defer to Arum on a lot of matters related to his career, and this is probably going to be another one of those times.

Koncz says “Manny knows he will get a warm reception from the people in Mexico. They will cheer, some of them will, for Margarito, but he feels some will cheer for him as well. The Mexican boxing fans are very intelligent and they are not racist of any sort.”

I wonder if Koncz likes the idea of Pacquiao fighting in Mexico more than him. It seems kind of odd that Koncz is speaking for Pacquiao. I’d rather hear what Pacquiao says for himself rather than having it broken down second hand like this. Whatever the case, I see Pacquiao fighting Margarito wherever Arum wants the fight to take place, and that’s in the United States. If Arum strikes on in his efforts to get Margarito relicensed, then the fight will no doubt take place in Mexico. However, Arum is probably going to be able to shop around until he finds a state that will give Margarito his boxing license back. With the big money that a Pacquiao vs. Margarito fight will bring in, Arum shouldn’t have any problems finding one of the states that are willing to give Margarito his boxing license back shortly.