By Chris Williams: The 4-part HBO 24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito series starts tonight on HBO. The series is designed to go into the training and to some extent the private lives of Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito as they get ready for their November 13th fight at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. The past HBO 24/7 series has done a good job in getting the casual boxing fans to purchase fights between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Pacquiao, and Miguel Cotto and Pacquiao in high numbers. However, HBO was able to sell those fights because they were good match-ups going in between fighters that came into the bout with a big fan base.

It’s all well and good that HBO is putting together a high priced four part series to try and sell the Pacquiao-Margarito fight for pay per view, but I don’t know that any amount of drama and hype is going to produce the kinds of numbers that HBO will be looking for on November 13th. You can polish a flawed product as much as you want, but fans are still going to look at is as less than desirable regardless of how much the fight is hyped. Margarito vs. Pacquiao isn’t the fight boxing fans wanted to see.

Heck, it’s not even the second, third or fourth fight that they wanted to see. I think it’s fair to say that few boxing fans wanted to see Pacquiao matched up with Margarito. However, that’s what they’re getting. It’s admirable that HBO has decided to put together a 24/7 series on this fight, but I don’t know that they’re going to be able to sell a less than desirable fight like this to the casual boxing public. Instead of putting together a 24/7 series, they need to put together a fight that boxing fans want to see and really care about. Watching Margarito give excuses for why a plaster-like substance was found on his hand wraps before his fight with Shane Mosley last year isn’t my idea of entertainment.

This isn’t enough for me to want to purchase the fight for $55. And I don’t want to see Freddie Roach doing most of the talking during the 24/7 series. That doesn’t appeal to me. Roach is utterly predictable at this point. All he’ll be doing is predicting another knockout win for Pacquiao, while at the same time cutting down the fighting ability of Margarito. Instead of talking about these things, Roach should be making excuses about why Pacquiao isn’t fighting Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez or Juan Manuel Marquez. At least those potential fights are mildly interesting.