By Joseph “The Mad Boxing Genius” Torres: When the Manny Pacquiao/Antonio Margarito fight was first announced, not many people were pleased with it. As a matter of fact, people seemed quite bitter about it. Not so much because the pound for pound battle between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao once again failed to materialize, but rather because the fans felt as if Antonio Margarito was being “rewarded” with a fight with Manny Pacquiao for simply being a Top Rank fighter.

Antonio Margarito was suspended for one year for attempting to load his gloves before his January 2009 bout with Sugar Shane Mosley – an accusation that he was found guilty of by the California State Athletic Commission and suspended for one year. After his one year suspension, he re-applied for his license in Nevada which tabled his request then was denied in another hearing by the California State Athletic Commission. This lead him to Texas where he did get license to fight Manny Pacquiao however this whole production has not sit well with the fans. Although the early numbers are looking strong for attendance and PPV buys and some are now predicting this to be the fight of the year, there is a significant large amount of people who are still disgusted with Antonio Margarito’s actions and will boycott the fight. This fight isn’t expected to hit the 1 million PPV mark however had this been pre Shane Mosley, 1 million PPV purchases would have been an easy target.

No matter how one feels, there is more at stake than Manny Pacquiao’s eight divisional title or redemption for Antonio Margarito, a lot more!

It’s now quite clear that Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants no part of Manny Pacquaio, at least for the time being. However, if you ask most fans and boxing experts right now, they will tell you dead on that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is scared to fight. For arguments sake, and there is absolutely no significant evidence that Floyd is scared to fight Pacquiao, let’s say he is. This puts Antonio Margarito right in line of fire again.

Floyd Mayweather in his infamous video earlier this year, ranting racist remarks on Manny Pacquaio stated that he wanted to take about a year off and then he’d take care of business against the Filipino icon. Now, if Mayweather is in fact just “talking smack” and has no real agenda to square off against the pound for pound king, Antonio Margarito is his perfect excuse.

In the event of a Margarito loss who is the bigger and stronger man, Mayweather would gingerly play the PED card once again. What if Pacquiao not only won the fight but were to knockout Margarito? That would hands down spell the end of a mega-fight between the two best fighters in the world. If he was apprehensive to fight Pacquiao before, why in the world would he fight him now knowing that he just took down a man who is 4 ½ inches taller, 6 inches longer in reach and did it way out of his natural weight division?

In the event of a Margarito win, Manny Pacquaio no longer has this aura of invincibility thus crushing the excitement of the two best and most unstoppable fighters in the world today. Mayweather can easily say (and probably would) that Pacquaio has too many loses and doesn’t belong in the ring with him.

Although I don’t believe Mayweather to be a coward, if he is in fact scared to face Pacquaio, it will be Antonio Margarito’s fault. You can’t blame the man for taking advantage of this fight but just as luck would have it, he will go from being “The Most Avoided Man In Boxing” to cementing his status as “The Most Hated Man In Boxing”.
As excited as people are getting for this showdown between “The Pacman” and “The Tijuana Tornado” now, this potential “Fight of the Year” could end up killing the “Fight of the Century”!

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