By Eric Thomas: As expected, Antonio Margarito (38-6, 27 KO’s) received his boxing license from the Texas Athletic Commission on Thursday without a hearing. As the saying goes, ‘three times is a charm,’ and that’s certainly the case for the 32-year-old Margarito, who had been turned down two times prior to the Texas Commission by the California and Nevada Athletic Commissions. Now all that’s behind Margarito and he’s ready to take advantage of his good luck. The fight will now almost certainly be put in the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington. Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys and the Cowboys stadium, had this to say at the Star-telegram.com: “We’ve got a few more things that we need to iron out, but we’ll have an announcement coming soon. It was worth the wait. I’m pleased that we’re in the position we are here. This is a good one because now Margarito with our fan base in this area, it’ll be a big draw.”
There’s a large Mexican community in Texas and Margarito will no doubt that advantage of it for his fight against Pacquiao. Unlike a lot of boxing fans that probably will never forgive Margarito for his hand wrap flap before his fight against Shane Mosley last year, Margarito is still well liked by the Hispanic community and has a large following to this day. With all of Margarito’s fans backing him, and Pacquiao’s large fan base, this fight should do really well. If you throw in casual boxing fans that will get caught up in the hype that’s generated by HBO and other media sources, the Pacquiao-Margarito fight could easily draw as many as 80,000 fans at the Cowboy Stadium and around 1 million pay per view buys.
This will obviously make Bob Arum, Pacquiao and Margarito’s promoter, quite happy because he would have Margarito as another option for a rematch with Pacquiao in either 2011 or 2012. Floyd Mayweather might not be needed if Arum can keep putting Pacquiao in with his Top Rank fighters Miguel Cotto, Margarito and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. without the boxing public losing interest.
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