By Jason Kim: The last thing that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants is for his top fighter Manny Pacquiao to get beaten by one of his stable fighters Antonio Margarito this Saturday night when they meet up at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. Margarito was one of the top welterweights in the division two years ago, but has lost a lot of his luster since then with a knockout loss to 38-year-old Shane Mosley last year, and then a mediocre performance against fringe junior middleweight contender Roberto Garcia in May of this year.
Arum, who likes to match his fighters against each other than putting them in against other fighters outside of his table, could have selected a better opponent for Pacquiao than Margarito. But then again, it’s better to keep Pacquiao winning by facing one of his own fighters who isn’t quite what he used to be. However, there is still a very real chance that Margarito might be able to find some of his old form and pull off an upset win over Pacquiao on Saturday, because Margarito is after all a lot bigger than Pacquiao at 5’11” compared to the 5’6″ Pacquiao. in that case, Arum’s idea of matching Pacquiao against his struggling stable fighter Margarito would blow up in his face. A loss for Pacquiao will hurt his marketability and mess up the potential big money fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the future.
In an article at the Inquirer.net, Arum says “he [Margarito] certainly has the tools to pull off an upset. I mean he’s the bigger, stronger guy.” Margarito is also the fighter that throws more punches on average. Pacquiao recently threw over 100 punches in his win over Joshua Clottey in March. However, Pacquiao’s shots don’t really compare with Margarito when he’s throwing a lot of punches, because Margarito sits down on his shots much better than Pacquiao will throwing for high volume, whereas Pacquiao was just throwing weak shots at Clottey’s gloves for much of the fight without aiming his punches or putting any real power into them.
Arum thinks the Margarito-Pacquiao fight will sell at least 60,000 fans at the stadium on Saturday, saying “Technically, it won’t be a sellout. You can’t fill out the venue.” The stadium can hold more than 100,000. This fight won’t bring in those kinds of numbers because Pacquiao doesn’t have a popular opponent. Arum says “We’re setting the target between 60,000 and 70,000.’
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