By Jason Kim: One of the biggest reasons why I see the Antonio Margarito vs. Manny Pacquiao fight as a complete waste of time is because Margarito looked so bad in getting beaten up and stopped by the 38-year-old Shane Mosley last year in a 9th round TKO defeat in January. Mosley didn’t do anything magical to get the win over Margarito, other than throwing fast punches and occasionally clinching him. But Margarito looked like he was punching in slow motion. It was ridiculous how slow Margarito looked. When he throws his wide shots, Mosley would come up the center with a two and three punch combination to get the better of Margarito.

This went on for much of the fight until Margarito finally faded. Now Bob Arum, Margarito and Pacquiao’s promoter, wants to put Margarito in with an even faster fighter in 31-year-old Pacquiao. Margarito doesn’t have a chance in this fight. We’re talking a royal massacre of epic proportions. The only ones that don’t see this or boxing fans who are remembering Margarito at his best in fights against slower punchers like Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron.

Margarito did look good in those bouts, but that was two years ago against fighters without the same kind of hand speed that Pacquiao has. I think Margarito might still be able to beat Cintron and Cotto if his power hasn’t abandoned him completely, but that doesn’t mean that he can beat a fighter like Pacquiao or that he deserves a shot against him. Arum probably should have waited until Margarito had beaten someone good before matching him against Pacquiao. The idea is to show the boxing public that Margarito is back and that he still has the talent to compete with a guy like Pacquiao. After all, Arum is going to be asking for fans to plunk down $49.95 to watch the Pacquiao-Margarito fight on pay per view.

Shouldn’t Arum have at least made it worthwhile by letting them get a glimpse of him against a talented opponent before the Pacquiao fight? The lack of hand speed from Margarito is going to be a huge problem for him. He was never even slightly competitive with Mosley, whose hand speed gave Margarito all kinds of problems in their fight. Pacquiao is like a level above Mosley in hand speed and power, and it’s going to be like watching one fighter fighting in slow motion against a speeded up boxer/puncher. I think this fight could end up being stopped very early in a similar way to the Ricky Hatton vs. Pacquiao fight.

Pacquiao will be able to counter Margarito with big shots that he doesn’t see coming and really punish him with shots. If Margarito’s chin isn’t what it once was, he’s going to get taken out fast. He’ll get paid well, but the boxing fans won’t get their money’s worth if they were hoping to see a competitive fight. If they want to see a mismatch, then this is the fight for them to see, because on paper it doesn’t look like it’s going to be competitive.