Margarito: “I’m not De La Hoya, Clottey or Cotto”

By Chris Williams: Antonio Margarito intends on putting forth a much better effort than Manny Pacquiao’s recent opponents Joshua Clottey, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto. Margarito says “I’m not De La Hoya, Clottey or Cotto. Joshua Clottey was just covering up. It’s like a heavy bag in front of me. If it were in front of me, I’d do what I like, too.” Margarito wasn’t impressed with the performance – or non performance – from Clottey in his recent 12 round decision loss to Manny Pacquiao in March. Margarito wonders why Clottey didn’t throw many punches in that fight, because he threw a lot when he faced Margarito in 2006 in a losing effort.

Maybe four years changes a lot, because Clottey did next to zero in the Pacquiao fight. If Pacquiao is thinking that Margarito is going to come in and just lay down in front of him, he’s going to be in for a long night of heavy punishment. HBO’s 24/7 Pacquiao/Margarito episode 2 revealed that Pacquiao has not only been looking average in sparring, he’s also missing training sessions and not looking focused. He doesn’t look motivated for this fight for some reason. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t see Margarito as someone he has to work hard for, and he could be right.

But it looks strange to see how hard Margarito is working and then to see the comparison of what Pacquiao is doing in training. He doesn’t seem to be working nearly as hard. I could understand it if Pacquiao had been wiping out good fighters like Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams, but beating Cotto, Clottey, Ricky Hatton and De La Hoya isn’t my idea of the kinds of opponents that compare with Margarito. Cotto and Clottey both lost to Margarito, whereas De La Hoya wisely chose not to fight him.

And Hatton would have likely been destroyed by Margarito, even the version of Margarito that lost to Shane Mosley last year. I think Margarito would have taken Hatton apart if they fought last year. Pacquiao hasn’t faced anyone for him to be feeling like he can slack off for this fight, because the guys that have been matched against him or ones that were already badly softened up and not in the class of Margarito.