Antonio Margarito wants spectacular win over Paez Jr

By Boxing News - 02/04/2016 - Comments

margarito34By Dan Ambrose: 37-year-old former welterweight world champion Antonio Margarito (38-8, 27 KOs) is confident going into his fight next month against Jorge Paez Jr. (37-7-2, 23 KOs) on May 5 at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico City. Margarito hasn’t fought since losing to Miguel Cotto in their rematch in 2011.

The soon to be 38-year-old Margarito is hoping to be able to recapture his old former when he gets back inside the ring to resume fighting. Margarito is feeling pretty good after sparring for the last couple of weeks.

Margarito is in a position where he needs to beat Paez Jr., and look good in the process if he wants to get bigger fights. He could eventually get some decent fights if he can pick up some solid wins and show that he still has the talent that he possessed years ago.

However, it’s unlikely that Margarito will be able to recapture the best years of his career. He was already slowing down when his career ended in 2011. His hand speed, which was never fast to begin with, was even slower than before, and this resulted in him taking a lot of punishment in his fights against Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley and in his rematch against Miguel Cotto.

“[Paez] is a good fighter, he’s talented, but [he] has lost great opportunities and I’m going for a spectacular win,” Margarito said to ESPN.com. “I want to make it clear that I’m a fighter who can give more, and that’s what I want — people wanting to see more from me. I’ve been training very hard and I feel very motivated to give them a great fight in the Mexico City Arena and raise my hand at the end as the winner.”

It won’t be surprising if Margarito loses to Paez Jr. That’s a pretty tough guy for someone like Margarito to be fighting after being out of the sport since 2011. Paez Jr. is still young at 28, and he’s been losing to decent level opposition lately in defeats against Jose Benavidez and Carlos Ocampo.

Margarito is reportedly hoping to get a third fight against Cotto, and he also would like to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. I believe those fights are likely out of the question. Cotto has already avenged his loss to Margarito, and I doubt that he would want to fight him again. Canelo is with Golden Boy Promotions, and I doubt that they would show a great need to match their franchise fighter against Margarito, especially with the flap that was created over the hand-wrap scandal in 2009.

“I know Cotto has said no, but I’ll go on insisting, and I would like to fight against Canelo,” Margarito said. “I thought he’d knock out Cotto and he couldn’t, so I think he doesn’t have the power. If it’s not against them, I’m ready for the other champions because I know I have the hunger and the strength to become the world champion again.”

Hopeflly, Margarito isn’t counting on getting Cotto and Canelo inside the ring, because those fights are not likely to ever take place. I can’t see Margarito beating any of the world champions from 147 to 160. I think it would be really bad for Margarito if he fought even a contender at 154 or 160.



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