Pacquiao: Margarito better than Clottey

Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao believes Antonio Margarito is better than Joshua Clottey and sees an action-packed bout when they tangle for the World Boxing Council super welterweight crown on Nov. 13 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas.

In an interview with the Inquirerprior to his departure for Los Angeles Monday night, Pacquiao noted that Margarito “is a very aggressive fighter” and the Mexican’s height and reach advantage will make it “difficult for me.”

Pacquiao predicted “it’s going to be a good fight because Margarito likes to come forward all the time and throw punches and that’s what we like—plenty of action. For sure there’s going to be a lot of action in the ring and it won’t be like the Joshua Clottey fight.”

In their 147-pound showdown at the same venue last March 13, Clottey merely took the punches thrown by Pacquiao and hardly fought back.

Pacquiao compared the upcoming clash with the 5-foot-11 Margarito to his fight with the 5-10 Oscar De La Hoya, who quit at the end of the eighth round after taking a beating.

Pacquiao also said he doesn’t believe Margarito’s claim that he didn’t know about the illegal hand-wraps that were discovered prior to his fight against Shane Mosley, when Margarito suffered a ninth-round TKO and lost his WBA super world welterweight title on Jan. 24, 2009.

“I don’t believe him (Margarito),” Pacquiao said. “Of course he knows about that (illegal hand-wraps). Its his hands and he watches the taping.”

Pacquiao believes Margarito denied he knew about the hand-wraps because he was “looking for a way out so his reputation won’t be damaged among his fans.”

However, Pacquiao noted that Margarito had “paid his dues by sacrificing and not fighting for one year.

“I hope he learned his lesson and will not repeat the same mistake.”

At the same time, Pacquiao said he is not taking any chances, pointing out that “we can watch his hands being wrapped because our agreement is we will have two representatives led by my coach (Freddie Roach) to watch the taping.”

Reacting to the comments of boxing writers who wanted him to punish Margarito for what he did Pacquiao said: “No, I can’t do that. He is good fighter. He’s big and skilled and also has power. We will do what we are capable of so that we will win for our country.”

The Pacquiao-Margarito promotional tour kicks off Tuesday at the Rodeo Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

source: http://www.inquirer.net/sports/articles/Pacquiao-Margarito-better-than-Clottey.html

Margarito says he will “Knock Pacquiao out!”

Antonio Margarito isn’t lacking for confidence going into his November 13th fight with Manny Pacquiao for the vacant World Boxing Council junior middleweight title. In article at Philboxing.com, Margarito says “I will knock Pacquiao out, and show the world that I am back, this is the fight of my life and Manny will be in for a tough night, I wont quit like De La Hoya did.”

Indeed, Margarito has never been known to quit in his fights. He’s the type that goes down swinging, which was the case in his 9th round TKO loss last year to Shane Mosley. That was about the poorest performance that Margarito had ever been as a pro.

Margarito reportedly had problems making weight for that fight and had to take off a lot of weight in a short period of time. That might explain why he looked so weak in that fight. If Margarito comes into the Pacquiao fight on November 13th resembling the same fighter that defeated Kermit Cintron twice and took apart Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao could be in for a lot of trouble.

Margarito has always been known for his high work rate and his ability to throw 100 punches per round for an entire fight. Normally, Margarito’s opponents can take that kind of punishment when Margarito is throwing at such a high rate. This could be the case for Pacquiao if Margarito is able to average 100 punches thrown per round and stay at that level for the entire fight.

It would then come down to whoever has the best chin between these two fighters. It’s possible that Margarito might have too much size for Pacquiao. It will depend on how weakened Margarito is by the 151 pound catch weight limit that Pacquiao and his team want for this fight. That could be enough of a handicap for Pacquiao to beat Margarito, but it might not be if Margarito is in good shape for this fight.

Pacquiao in for Whirlwind With ‘Tijuana Tornado’

So after all that talk we don’t get Pacquiao-Mayweather after all. It all ended up to be just a huge stressball of a rollercoaster ride that saw uncle Bob Arum finally prove to be telling the truth for once, when Ross Greenburg exposed Richard Schaeffer and all of Mayweather’s minions to be in on the scam that scammed the world. So Floyd Mayweather doesn’t want to fight Manny Pacquiao, what’s new? Well at least not this year claimed Arum, who cited Roger Mayweather’s legal troubles and IRS taxation issues to be the main hindrances to the Mega Fight in this leg of the negotiations. What we’re left with is something no one really wants to see, Pacquiao – Margarito on November 13th.

Though Antonio Margarito isn’t as interesting an opponent for Pacquiao as say maybe Timothy Bradley or Andre Berto, there is still much to be expected from the former ‘most avoided man on the planet’. ‘Margacheato’, the artist formerly known as ‘The Tijuana Tornado’, used to be ducked and dodged like the plague and belonged to the absolute elite in Boxing. If you had Mayweather ducking him, you know he was good. It wasn’t until a guy like Miguel Cotto who avoided no one, faced him and threw every punch in the book. He tagged Margarito over and over but to no avail, the man’s chin was solid as rock. With the Cotto win, Margarito was on the top of the Boxing world.

Until ‘Plastergate’, when he was caught with an illegal substance in his handwraps minutes before his fight with Shane Mosley, Margarito was the man to beat.

Enter Manny Pacquiao, who is on a winning streak of a lifetime beating names like Barrera, Morales, Marquez, Dela Hoya, Hatton, Cotto and Clottey. Not only did he beat them, he obliterated them. However, I can understand the resent fans feel when speaking of the Pacquiao – Margarito fight, simply put it’s definitely not what the world wants but we will all have to learn to live with it. Whether or not Margarito deserves the shot at facing the Pound for Pound King is another story. Margarito’s disgraced career will always be under review.

As for Pacquiao, whoever he fights, he will always be remembered for who he fought and not who he avoided. A knock on Floyd, yes, but it has always been that way. I guess we just have to hold our breaths until chapter 3 of the Pacquiao – Mayweather talks resume. Though I’d most surely want to change the program, I’d stick to watching a re-run of Pacquiao beating Dela Hoya to a pulp, but in Antonio Margarito packaging. Watching Pacquiao fight anybody is way better than watching Floyd on TMZ anyways.

And real fighters fight. There should be no question as to who the pound for pound king is anymore.

source: http://www.officialscorecard.com/blog/?p=650

Pacquiao-Margarito: Manny goes after another paper title

Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s) has become the quite the collector of paper titles in recent years. For some reason, he seems intent on collecting as many as he can before he retires from boxing. On November 13th, Pacquiao will be fighting Antonio Margarito for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. This will be Pacquiao’s 8th world title if he’s successful in beating the disgraced Margarito. But what’s the point in Pacquiao collecting all these titles if he’s not fighting the best champion of each division?

Back in November, Pacquiao fought then WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at a catch weight. Instead of fighting WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley – the fighter considered to be the best of the welterweight champions last year – we got to see Pacquiao go after Cotto. Of course, Pacquiao beat him. There was no question he was going to beat Cotto, because Cotto hasn’t looked the same since being taken apart by Margarito in 2008.

When Pacquiao fought for the lightweight title in 2008, he fought WBC lightweight champion David Diaz instead of IBF/WBA/WBO lightweight champion Nate Campbell. I don’t know of too many people who thought that Diaz was better than Campbell. But why is Pacquiao fighting the weaker champions instead of the very best fighters at each weight? It seems to me that if Pacquiao is going to be collecting trinkets, he should at least fight the best fighters. What point is there to be collecting titles if the knowledgeable boxing fans seem them without much value?

Sure, the ignorant boxing fans will admire Pacquiao for having won eight world titles, but what value is there from someone who doesn’t have much of a clue about the sport? If Pacquiao wants the respect of boxing fans, he should go after the best fighters in each weight class when he’s looking to add another title to his collection. I don’t count Pacquiao’s title wins in the flyweight, super bantamweight, super featherweight, lightweight and welterweight divisions.

I think Pacquiao lost his fight to Juan Manuel Marquez when he defeated him by a controversial 12 round decision in 2008 for the WBC super featherweight title. And I wasn’t impressed with Pacquiao’s wins at flyweight, super bantamweight, super featherweight, lightweight and welterweight because I feel that those wins didn’t come against the best of the champions at the time.

Basically, I see Pacquiao as never having won a legitimate title where he beat the best in the division, and I won’t count his win over Margarito for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title on November 13th. I don’t see Margarito as a fighter that deserves to fight for the title because he’s only fought at junior middleweight once in the past six years. And I don’t see Pacquiao as a worthy challenger for the title because he’s never fought at junior middleweight before.

If Pacquiao wanted to fight for a title at junior middleweight, then he should have done it while Sergio Martinez was still the champion instead of waiting until he had vacated the title to go after it. That’s weak. But if Pacquiao is going to go after one of the junior middleweight titles, he should fight Sergeii Dzinziruk, the WBO champion, because he’s probably the best fighter in the division right now. I don’t consider Cotto being better than him. Cotto is another paper champion in my view.

Pacquiao-Margarito: Arum Confident it Does Big Business

Bubbly Bob Arum, jetting Thursday from the Italian Riviera back to Las Vegas, said Wednesday the Antonio Margarito-Manny Pacquiao fight to be held Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tx., will draw more than 70,000 paying fans.

Some cynics might think that the North Texas area might not be as receptive as it turned out to be on March 13, when 51,000 showed up at the sparkling football playpen which houses Jerry Jones’ NFL Cowboys team to watch Pacman trying to entice Johsua Clottey into an actual fight.

And some may think that genial host Jones might not have the same enthusiasm as he did when he forked over $7 million for Clottey-Pacman, especially since the November date is in the middle of football season.

Nay, nay, sayeth Arum, who is hoping for the official OK on Margarito’s boxing license application on Friday.

“If anything, Jerry is even more enthusiastic. Look, we got a huge crowd with Clottey, a fighter nobody in North Texas knew anything about. Now we’ve got a Mexican fighter in an area with a big Mexican population. I think we can get north of 70,000 fans.

“Having this fight during football season also opens up all the marketing and other channels Jerry uses for the Cowboys, they will all be helping us with the promotion.”

Las Vegan Arum said he feels “bad” that the gambling city will not host a Pacqiauo bout this calendar year, mainly due to the Margarito licensing issues.

“I do feel bad, that is where I live. Las Vegas lives off gaming and a big Manny fight would have been a good financial injection for everyone. There’s nothing like a big fight in Vegas but, at the same, I couldn’t be more excited about going back to Jerry and to his stadium.”

Roach may have Pacquiao try to overwhelm Margarito with punches

Trainer Freddie Roach may have tipped his hand by giving a big hint about what Manny Pacquiao will do in his next fight with Antonio Margarito by saying “Manny will start fast with this guy, and we will finish him fast,” in an interview with the Telegraph.co.uk. In other words, Roach is going to have Pacquiao bum rush Margarito like he did Joshua Clottey, stand in front of him and try to overwhelm him with over 100 punches per round. It didn’t work against Clottey, though, because he blocked most of Pacquiao’s shots and the ones that got through had no effect on him.

Pacquiao ended up throwing over 1200 punches over the course of the 12 round bout, but he was just throwing them without aiming and not loading up on them. If Pacquiao fights this way against Margarito, he may be playing into Margarito’s major strength. He’s very good at throwing a massive amount of punches per round, and more than capable of throwing 100 punches per round over a 12 round bout. The difference here is that Margarito is still able to aim his shots and throw with a lot of power.

He may not be the fastest of fighters, but he hits harder and actually aims his shots when he’s focusing on high volume punching. My guess is Roach thinks that Pacquiao will be able to duplicate what Shane Mosley did in his fight with Margarito, and that’s why Roach is talking about Pacquiao starting off fast and finishing fast. He must think that Pacquiao can overwhelm Margarito with a massive amount of shots. I don’t think it’s going to work.

Mosley didn’t just stand in front of Margarito trying to gun him down with ton of punches. What Mosley did was attack in brief two and three punch spurts. In between those brief bursts, he did a lot of clinching to keep Margarito from being able to throw punches. When he wasn’t clinching, Mosley was moving around on the outside. I don’t think Pacquiao will do any clinching with Margarito, because that’s not part of Pacquiao’s game. Even if Roach tried to train Pacquiao to smother Margarito with clinching, I don’t think he would follow that game plan.

The only way that Pacquiao can beat Margarito is to go toe-to-toe with him, and if he does try and throw a massive of punches like he did against Clottey, I think Margarito is going to beat Pacquiao up and stop him. We already saw what Clottey was able to do to Pacquiao in just throwing 15 to 20 punches per round. Can you imagine Margarito, a bigger puncher than Clottey, throwing 5 X that many per round? Pacquiao will get riddled to pieces. Roach better hope that Pacquiao can get Margarito out of there as fast as possible, because there may not be anything left of him if this bout goes 10 rounds or more.

Margarito will beat the stuffing out of Pacquiao

Okay, so Antonio Margarito is going to beat Manny Pacquiao like a big stick beating up on an old dirty rug hung over a fence. This isn’t going to be one of those nice beatings like the one Margarito gave to his last opponent Roberto Garcia. This is going to be another Miguel Cotto beating, where Pacquiao’s eyes are all cut open, his nose twisted sideways, his lips busted and bleeding and his ear all messed up like it was in the Cotto fight.

Margarito won’t have mercy. It’s going to be a savage beating that has Freddie Roach out of his mind with panic. Pacquiao’s long string success since his gift decision over Juan Manuel Marquez ends right here with this bout and this beating. Margarito is a lot more talented than you people will ever know. All the people think is that he’s the one that loaded up his hand wraps and tried to fight with them. He didn’t know anything, and the guy is a major talent and doesn’t need loaded hand wraps to beat Pacquiao black and blue.

Okay, so I see this fight getting out of hand early on like in the 1st round. Margarito is going to come out firing away with tremendous hooks to the head and body. Each shot that Margarito lands will drive the little Pacquiao backwards from the force of the shot. It’s going to be like watching a little lamb getting slaughtered by a farmer with a long, long knife. Margarito is going to cut into Pacquiao with each shot and make him cry out in pain.

Pacquiao will stagger back to his corner after taking too much punishment from the proud Mexican warrior. In between rounds, Roach will babble some instructions to Pacquiao about attacking Margarito. It won’t matter what he tells Pacquiao, because he won’t have the size or skills to carry out Roach’s desperate instructions.

Okay, so the 2nd round will be more of the same with Margarito tearing into Pacquiao’s hide like a killer whale eating a little seal. Pacquiao will try to fight back, but Margarito will continue tear away at Pacquiao with huge shots that will hurt Pacquiao in the worst way. Finally, Margarito will land one of those Joshua Clottey uppercuts that send Pacquiao’s head snapping like it’s going to come off his neck. Pacquiao will then topple backwards and fall straight on his back without even breaking his fall.

Pacquiao’s non-seeing eyes will be staring at the overhead lights without registering what he’s viewing. There won’t be any need for a count because Pacquiao will be out cold. Roach will come rushing into the ring, look at Pacquiao and start blubbering nonstop. Margarito will smile and walk away like it was no big deal.

Pacquiao vs. Margarito and Haye vs. Harrison: Both on November

After extensive difficulties in putting together both fights, it appears that both Manny Pacquiao vs Antonio Margarito, and David Haye vs. Audley Harrison are now set to go ahead for November 13th.

Despite the sizable setback of being denied a license to box in both Nevada and California for the time being, Antonio Margarito does now look likely to regain his license in Texas. Meaning that the fight will almost certainly happen at the Dallas Cowboys stadium owned by Jerry Jones. And also that Jones will likely get the fight at a cut rate price, given that just about every other venue is now for one reason or another off the table.

Texas athletic commission spokeswoman Susan Stanford said:

“If it’s denied, he can ask for a hearing. But it’s my understanding his license is no longer revoked, and that his application will be treated like any other license.”

In other words then, Margarito’s application will be reviewed with no consideration to the actions that lead to his suspension, and he will almost certainly be granted a license.

This stance from Texas was probably influenced by two things. Firstly resident billionaire and sports team owner Jerry Jones, wants to host the fight, and people who own major sports teams tend to draw a lot of water. It is also in the best interests of just about everyone in the area if the Cowboys stadium is a success, and putting on big events alongside the football season is essential for making this happen.

Secondly the fight will bring a lot of money into the area in the short term, and you can bet that Margarito’s indiscretions aside everyone set to benefit from the taxi drivers and waiters right through to Jerry Jones himself are all welcoming the extra income that the big fight tourism will bring.

This will come as mixed news to many fight fans, who were hoping that if Margarito were forced to pull out, Pacquiao would instead take on Juan Manuel Marquez for a third time, or perhaps one of the light welterweight standouts.

Meanwhile in London, after months of speculation, David Haye has admitted at last that he is indeed in the final stages of talks to put together a bout between himself and former Olympic champion Audley Harrison. The latter of whom currently holds the E.B.U heavyweight title, but will likely follow in the footsteps of Albert Sosnowski and vacate if and then the fight against WBA champion Haye is confirmed.

This news will also be met with derision from large sections of both the press and the fans, given that Harrison is nearly 40 years old, and has proved over his professional career to date that he just isn’t good enough to be challenging for a world title. If not for the fact that Haye vs. Harrison will sell big in England it isn’t likely he would be getting a title shot.

Haye has also promised that he will dish the dirt on his recent negotiations with the Klitschko brothers, although the idea that he has been ducking them is now firmly imprinted in the minds of most boxing fans. What he will be able to say to persuade fans that he isn’t the one stopping fights against either one being made isn’t clear, but it will need to be something good. Especially given that both of the Klitschko’s have been taunting Haye in the media for the last few months, and that both allegedly offered him equal purse split fights.

Whether or not the fights are what the fans wanted as a first choice though, both being on the same night should make for a great night for the sport. Also Haye vs. Harrison being held in London it should be over well before Pacquiao and Margarito enter the ring as well.

Ken Wu, Philly: “Good odds for a Margarito and Harrison double upset”

Sean Hill, Pittsburgh: “Both fights no one wants to see. Maybe they will be on a double pay per view thing though”

Antonio Margarito Confident: I Will Beat Manny Pacquiao

Former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito is very confident ahead of his fight with Manny Pacquiao on November 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A few days ago the California State Athletic Commission denied Margarito’s request for a boxing license. Margarito would not discuss the decision in detail with Reynaso Cetenio. He would only say “I’m very disappointed” when asked for his thoughts. He was later questioned if he was concerned about fighting a dangerous opponent like Pacquiao, and he said “no, because I’m going to beat him.”

source: http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=30256

Pacquiao vs Margarito can draw 70,000 fans at Dallas

Promoter In an article at the Dallas news, Arum says “I think we could look to do 70,000 people. [Joshua] Clottey had no fan base. Margarito has a huge fan base of Mexican-Americans.” I don’t know about that. I agree with Arum about Clottey having no fan base, which makes it seem all the crazier that Arum selected Clottey as Pacquiao’s last opponent last March rather than opting to fight a much more popular fighter than him. But that’s beside the point. I think Arum has picked another Clottey-type opponent with 32-year-old Margarito, a fighter who still doesn’t even have a boxing license to fight in the United States.

That may or may not be taken care of by the Texas Athletic Commission now that Margarito has applied to them. But as far as numbers go, I really don’t see this as an attractive fight that boxing fans will be willing to travel great distances to see. Unless Arum is expecting to pull in 50,000 to 60,000 Mexican fans from the nearby area just to see Margarito fight, I think the fight may end up doing worse than the Clottey fight. At the most, I think it might bring in 50,000 but that would take a ton of marketing to make it possible.

Things aren’t helped that Margarito still doesn’t have his boxing license and Arum can’t even begin to market the fight until that happens. Margarito has been turned down by the California and Nevada Athletic Commissions already in his attempt to get a boxing license, but Arum seems to think that the Texas will grant him his license.

One advantage that Margarito has is there won’t be a meeting between him and the Commission. They won’t grill him, in other words. In Texas, the Commission doesn’t meet with the fighters and just decide on the application without any face to face meeting. That’s obviously a good thing for Margarito, because sometimes when you get a group of people together, they can gang up on a person and work him over.

But if Margarito does get his license to fight in Texas, I still have my doubts about whether Arum made the right decision in picking Margarito out as Pacquiao’s next opponent rather than a more popular fighter. Arum has the advantage in that Pacquiao is one of the most popular boxers in the world. Arum can pretty much match him against anyone and he’ll end up doing really well on the fight. But if Arum matches him against one of his own Top Rank fighters, he does even better by serving both of his fighters without having to negotiate with another promoter.

But you have to wonder whether a Pacquiao vs. Margarito bout will bring in the kind of numbers that Arum thinks it will. 70,000 fans is a lot of people to come and see what many boxing fans already see as a gross mismatch. At least when Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto last year, a lot of people thought Cotto had a chance to win. I don’t know of anyone that thinks that Margarito will win. Arum is expecting people to pay a lot of money by traveling all the way to Texas to see a fight that may not last more than five or six rounds.

I think this isn’t the fight opponent for Arum to get the kinds of numbers that he’s talking about, and the location isn’t a desirable one. Maybe it is for Margarito’s Mexican fans, but I think Arum is overestimating how popular Margarito is. He’s not as popular as Juan Manuel Marquez, that’s for sure. That’s someone that Arum could be matching against Pacquiao in this fight but chooses not to, saying that Marquez has to prove himself by beating Clottey or Andre Berto before he’ll allow Pacquiao to fight him.

source: http://www.boxingnews24.com/2010/08/arum-thinks-pacquiao-margarito-can-draw-70000-fans-in-the-cowboy-stadium/