By Jason Kim: Antonio Margarito (39-7, 27 KO’s) took an awful lot of punishment in losing by a 12 round unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) on Saturday night in a failed attempt to capture the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. It’s too early now to know whether there will be any lasting damage to Margarito that will possibly hinder him in future fights. But what we do know now is that he suffered a broken right orbital bone, which was made worse because part of Margarito’s right eye muscle was reportedly trapped in the fracture and needs to be released.

Beyond that, Margarito’s eyes are both badly swollen with one of them shut and the other almost completely shut as well. His face is badly swollen in general from the numerous shots he took from Pacquiao in the fight. It’s hoped that this won’t negatively affect Margarito in future fights against Miguel Cotto and/or Shane Mosley. Margarito’s promoter Bob Arum plans on matching up Margarito with either Cotto or Mosley next in rematches.

Margarito might want to take a tune-up fight after his face heals before going into either one of those fights, because he needs time to recover from this beating. Margarito would have been better off had Pacquiao stopped him early in the fight. At least that would have saved Margarito from taking so much unnecessary punishment. Saturday’s bout was never really competitive and only got worse as the fight got into the later rounds. Margarito landed some nice shots of his own in the fight, but Pacquiao’s rapid fire shots was too much for him and he ended up taking a lot of punishment.

Pacquiao won an 8th world title, which is a major accomplishment. Arum wants to try and match him up with Floyd Mayweather Jr. next, if possible. In an article at chicagobreakingsports.com, Arum said “My marching orders are to see if the Mayweather fight is feasible.” That’s the fight that boxing fans want to see. However, Mayweather still not be ready to take the fight due to some legal problems that’s weighing him down right now. If a bout against Mayweather can’t be made, Arum will look to match Pacquiao up with Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez or the winner of the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander bout. Mosley and Marquez are likely going to be the leading candidates for Pacquiao’s next fight.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, said “Mayweather has ducked Margarito in the past. I’m sure this put more fear into him and puts him even further away from wanting to make this fight.” Roach might also point the finger at Pacquiao for the fight negotiations with Mayweather not going well this year, because Pacquiao failed to agree to having his blood tested within three weeks of the fight. Mayweather wanted the blood testing to go up until 14 days before the fight, but Pacquiao wasn’t willing to have his blood tested that close to the fight. In hindsight, if Pacquiao had agreed to 14 days, they would have fought. So, it’s not entirely Mayweather ducking Pacquiao like Roach says.