By Dan Ambrose: For boxing fans of former IBF/WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (38-8, 27 KO’s), he reportedly could be back in the ring in June or September of this year, according to fightnews.com. Margarito, 34, would be fighting in Mexico for his next bout and then looking at getting a title shot in 2013 against one of the champions.

Before you dismiss any thought of Margarito getting another title shot, just remember that he fights for Top Rank, and you can believe that Margarito will soon be getting another title shot if he does return to action in 2012.

Margarito would likely be fighting at junior middleweight unless there was an opportunity for a big fight at welterweight. I can’t imagine any of the welterweight champions fighting Margarito. But at junior middleweight, it’s a different story. If Cotto is still around as the champion after he faces Floyd Mayweather Jr. next month, he could be an option for a rematch. I don’t see that happening in a million years though. Cotto will lose to Mayweather, and if he beats him, they’ll fight again. Margarito’s best bet is to go after IBF 154 pound champion Cornelius Bundrage or WBO champ Zaurbek Baysangurov. Neither of those are big fights, but Margarito could at least get a title shot if that’s his goal. He’d be taking on one of the two less popular champions in the light middleweight division. In the absence of a big named opponent willing to face him, Margarito would have a chance in theory to pick up another title. I see him losing to both of those guys.

As it is, Margarito has lost three out of his last four fights to Shane Mosley, Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Margarito looked painfully slow last December in the Cotto fight. However, Margarito was coming on in the 9th round of that bout, and it looked like the fight could have been following in the same pattern as his first fight against Cotto in 2008.

The fight was halted after the 9th round by the ringside doctor working the fight, because he felt that Margarito’s right eye, which had closed, was in bad shape and he didn’t want to take any risks. This was the same eye that Margarito suffered a fractured orbital bone in his 12 round decision loss to Pacquiao in 2010. Margarito had three eye surgeries to repair the problem before being given the opportunity to fight Cotto in a rematch. It was silly for Margarito to be facing a hard puncher like Cotto without a tune-up following a year long layoff and three eye surgeries. It made no sense at all. Why Margarito didn’t at least have one tune-up bout before the Cotto fight is the big question. It seemed like a rush job, and it’s not surprising that Margarito’s surgically repaired eye swelled up rapidly until it was nearly closed in the 9th.