By Chris Williams: Despite being the much taller fighter compared to the 5’6” Manny Pacquiao, the 5’11” Antonio Margarito will only have a mere 5 to 10 pound advantage over Pacquiao on fight night after re-hydrating on November 13th. That’s really not much of an advantage if you really think about it.

Margarito’s height advantage is totally meaningless because his style of fighting is up in close next to his opponents. Margarito gives up any advantage in reach he has by his bad habit of standing next to his shorter-armed opponents. This is why Bob Arum and Freddie Roach have picked the perfect opponent for Pacquiao to fight for the vacant World Boxing Council junior middleweight title.

Not only is Margarito slow and gives up his own height by standing close, but he’s also not really a junior middleweight. Technically, Margarito is for this fight, but he’s not been fighting at junior middleweight and has only one fight at that weight in the past six years.

Now, if Roach and Arum had matched Pacquiao against a real junior middleweight, someone that uses their height and reach like Sergio Martinez and Sergeii Dzinziruk, Pacquiao would likely be marching to defeat on November 13th. It’s about good match-making.

You find a guy that doesn’t use his height like Margarito and who isn’t a junior middleweight, and then take him on for the paper WBC vacant junior middleweight title so that Pacquiao can have bragging rights about winning eight world titles, even though he’ll never defend that title.

In an article at the Manilatimes.net, Roach says “Margarito has always been a slow-foot. He is naturally slow and I believe that no matter how they hype that he has improved on his movement, the reality is, he will be slower the more weight he gains.”

Roach is right about Margarito being slow, which is why he’s been selected to fight Pacquiao rather than someone that has speed, power and ability to move in the junior middleweight division. Put Pacquiao in with a better fighter than Margarito, and Pacquiao would likely be counting his teeth rather than another world title on November 13th.