By Dave Lahr: Bob Arum continues to try and hype the November 13th fight between his two Top Rank fighters Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, despite little fan interest outside of the Philippines. Arum can always count on Pacquiao’s loyal fan base in the Philippines to be interested in whoever he puts in there with Manny. In an article at Philboxing.com, Arum says “I think really think Manny is going to win the fight, but it will be the toughest, the most grueling fight he’s ever had and it’s going to be a sensational fight. This kid [speaking about Margarito] is going to throw a million punches from all different angles. He’s much bigger than Manny is, he has a great jaw and it’s going to be a great, great fight.” That’s what Arum said about Pacquiao’s fight against Joshua Clottey last March, and that turned out to be a real dud.
There was little interest before the fight and many boxing writers saw it as a huge mismatch, despite Arum and trainer Freddie Roach saying how Clottey would make for an exciting fight. He didn’t, as the bout turned out to be painfully boring. I have a feeling that Margarito will be just as boring as Clottey was, only I can see Margarito getting knocked out early. His chin isn’t as good as Arum thinks it is. He was stopped by Shane Mosley last year in the 9th round.
I wonder if Arum saw that fight. I disagree with Margarito making for a grueling fight, unless Arum is talking about Margarito bleeding all over Pacquiao for five or six rounds. In that case, I would consider it a “gruesome fight,” not a “grueling” one. I wish I felt the same way about Margarito as Arum does, but I just can’t forget how awful he looked against 38-year-old Mosley last year and how average he looked against little known Roberto Garcia in his last fight.
Arum is still hoping to have the fight take place at the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. The last time I checked, Margarito still doesn’t have a boxing license to fight in the United States. That’s not stopping Arum from meeting with the Cowboy Stadium owner Jerry Jones to talk about putting the Pacquiao-Margarito fight there. Margarito is reapplying to get his boxing license back from the California Athletic Commission this month. If he gets it, then Arum will get his way and the Pacquiao vs. Margarito fight will take place at the Cowboy Stadium. However, if the California Athletic Commission declines to give Margarito back his boxing license, then it’s going to be interesting to see if the Texas Athletic Commission will ignore what the California Athletic Commission rules.
Margarito has already been rejected by the Nevada Athletic Commission in his attempts to get his boxing license back from them. This fight could end up not happening at in Texas. Arum would then have to probably move the fight to Mexico. I bet by then he’d be wondering why he chose Margarito in the first place. It might have been better for Arum to wait until Margarito already had his boxing license to fight in the U.S. before deciding on putting Pacquiao with him.
I think that was a bizarre move on Arum’s part, but I can kind of understand it because he’s running out of fighters from his stable to put in with Pacquiao. There’s Miguel Cotto, Margarito, Julio Cesar Chavez, and Vanes Martirosyan. Other than maybe Cotto, there’s really no one that boxing fans want to see fight Pacquiao out of that bunch. Even Cotto, they’re not so eager to see another mismatch between him and Pacquiao. Whether they like it or not, they’ll be seeing a Pacquiao-Cotto rematch next year anyway.
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