By Eric Thomas: Antonio Margarito’s loss to Manny Pacquiao last November might prove a costly one for the 33-year-old Margarito (38-7, 27 KO’s), as not only did Margarito suffer a broken right orbital bone from that fight, which was bad enough to require surgery, but Margarito also suffered a detached retina in his right eye. That injury, along with the broken orbital bone, threaten Margarito’s career.

Margarito was supposed to be fighting a rematch with WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in September, but due to the extent of his injuries from the Pacquiao fight, he’s not going to be able to make the September fight. It’s unclear if and when Margarito will be able to fight again. Detached retinas are a very serious injury and can often signal an end to a fighter’ career. Margarito has had little luck since beating Cotto in 2008.

In Margarito’s next fight, he was stopped by Shane Mosley in the 9th round in January 2009. In the dressing room before the fight a plaster like substance was found in Margarito’s hand wraps. This led to Margarito losing his boxing license for over a year. He was able to come back a year later and fight outside of the United States without the license, beating Roberto Garcia by a 10 round decision in May 2010. But Margarito seemed to have lost a lot of his power in the year off from the sport. Margarito, with the help of his promoter, was able to get his boxing license back by going to Texas. He then was completely dominated in a one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao in a fight that Margarito took an enormous amount of punishment in. Many boxing fans felt that the fight should have been halted by the 8th round when it was clear that Margarito had no chance and was just soaking up punishment from Pacquiao.