By Roberto Elmore: After Manny Pacquiao made easy work of Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, the howls of “Floyd ducked both of these fighters” reemerged. Many of these claims have been opinionated and have not yet seen proof of these allegations. I did write an article stating that Mayweather side stepping Margarito was a good move. And financially it was back then. But upon my return to the article, I found facts that will support this article. Now, I know there will still be many who will contest these facts and continue with their barrage of name calling. But it’s not my job to control opinions; just give the facts and let the readers decide. But I want you to pay close attention to the quotes and who’s saying what.
After Mayweather defeated Zab Judah, he was offered 8 million to fight Antonio Margarito on August 12th 2006. Leonard Ellerbe had this to say after the Judah fight.
Floyd is not 100 percent healthy,” Ellerbe said. “He has a bruised right hand. His hand is not broken. It’s bruised, but it’s a bad bruise. He wants to go into any fight 100 percent healthy. If Antonio Margarito happens to be the best available option when he is healthy, so be it”.
“We are not turning down Margarito. I want to make that crystal clear. When and if he is the best available option for Floyd’s next fight, that’s the direction he will move in.” If you noticed, that was Ellerbe speaking. Not Floyd. Let’s move on.
Bob Arum, Mayweather’s promoter at the time said that Mayweather preferred to await the outcome of the May 6 Oscar De La Hoya-Ricardo Mayorga fight instead of committing to Margarito because he would prefer to fight De La Hoya.
Arum stated that Mayweather would have fought Margarito for the 8 million, but he wanted a guaranteed 10 million to fight Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton. Arum only guaranteed him 7 million. And for those who don’t know Cotto and Hatton were at the Mayweather-Gatti fight and Cotto was ranked number 5 by the ring at the time (Proof: Listen to the commentary Jim Lampley at the end of round 5) . Cotto had just moved up to the 140 pound weight class and he didn’t make an offer to fight Mayweather after the Gatti fight.
Arum said Mayweather also asked for $20 million to fight De La Hoya, a fight Arum said he wasn’t interested in participating in. “That’s not in the cards,” Arum said. “He wants $20 million for the De La Hoya fight? It’s not there. Sometimes, my man, you gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. We’ll talk about things down the road.” Notice this part Arum was talking.
Source for the entire article: (Mayweather turns down 8 million to fight Margarito; author: Dan Rafael, it was updated on April 12th 2006)
Face time: Mayweather had nothing to gain from fighting Margarito financially. There was no reward for this. There might have been a risk (but I can’t say what would have happened because it didn’t happen). Mayweather went on to fight the Carlos Baldomir for a dollar more 8,000,001, but he was the lineal welterweight champ. But Oscar had both risk and reward and we saw the results. Several people have fought and beat Margarito and their careers haven’t gone anywhere (Paul Williams, Shane Mosley). If anyone can provide me with a web sight, newspaper clipping, anything that has facts on it, I’m open to it. Peace.
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