By Eric Thomas: Former IBF/WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KO’s) could be back in the ring sparring as soon as July 1st after having successful surgery to clear up a cataract problem in his right eye. Margarito, 33, was planning on not fighting again in 2011 and was shooting for a rematch with Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KO’s) for 2012.

However, according to boxing news from the LA Times, Margarito is feeling good after the eye surgery and could be fighting Cotto in a big money rematch on October 1st or December 3rd. Those are the dates that Margarito’s promoter Bob Arum is looking at. Of course, with all the damage that Margarito took to his right eye area from the beating he suffered against Manny Pacquiao last November, it’s very possible that Margarito could suffer some setbacks with re-occurring injuries to this eye once he starts sparring.

Ideally, Margarito needs to take off a lot of time to ensure that his eye is properly healed before he starts contact. But Margarito is eager to get a shot against Cotto and it’s hard to blame him for wanting to get the big money that the Cotto rematch will bring in for him. It’s just that Margarito had some serious injuries to his right orbital bone from the Pacquiao loss and he might be better off taking it easy for the remainder of 2011 rather than risking any further injury to this area.

Margarito hasn’t looked like the same fighter he was in the Cotto bout in his last several fights. Margarito was a monster in 2008 when he stopped Cotto in an 11th round TKO. But since then, Margarito looked weak and slow against Shane Mosley in a losing effort in 2009. Margarito was subsequently suspended from boxing for a one year after a plaster-like substance was found in his handwraps before the Mosley fight. Margarito came back a year later and beat Roberto Garcia by a 10 round decision in May 2010 but looked weak in that fight as well. And from there, Margarito fought Pacquiao in November and was painfully slow and not powerful enough to do any real damage to Pacquiao.

The fight turned out to be a one-sided bore with Pacquiao dominating Margarito and hitting him at will for 12 one-sided rounds. That fight left Margarito with an injured right eye and it’s taken months of healing for Margarito to come back from that injury. But besides the injury to Margarito’s right eye, he took an enormous amount of head shots in the Pacquiao fight and it’s unfortunate that the fight wasn’t stopped because Margarito wasn’t competitive and he just ended up taking needless punishment in the fight.

I think Margarito should wait a while before facing Cotto. The eye needs time to heal and I think he’s doing the wrong thing to get back in the ring so soon to fight Cotto when he can always make the fight in 2012. They both have the same promoter, so it’s not like there is going to be any issue with trying to arrange the fight.