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TO JUSTIFY NOV. 13 DUEL
09/02/2010 And so they met — as rivals — for the first time. But seven-division king and World Boxing organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquio did not have a clear view of former champion Antonio Margarito’s face when they were presented in a face-off on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) in Beverly Hills. Although they were standing nearly face-to-face, it was clear Pacquiao did not enjoy any obvious physical edge against the taller, heftier Mexican. According to Lem Satterfield, boxing editor of boxing.fanhouse.com, the two boxers “were not exactly seeing eye to eye.” Margarito (38-6, 27 knockouts) stood at 5-foot-11, towering over the 5-7 Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs), and their sizes could tell Pacquiao should not expect a breeze of a win if he wants to clinch an eighth title in as many different divisions at a catch weight of 151 pounds. “Antonio Margarito is bigger and stronger than me. I am going to have to train very hard,” said the 31-year-old Pacquiao, who remains undefeated in 12 straight fights, including eight knockout triumphs since losing to Erik Morales in March 2005. And Pacquiao sure knew how to warn himself when he shared: “Margarito has capability of giving a good show and his style is very aggressive.” Pacquiao’s statement, of course, is also aimed at silencing Margarito bashers who called the challenger a patsy. Boxing aficionados want a “better” fighter to stand in the way of Pacquiao, many others preferring Floyd Mayweather Jr., who seems to be ducking a real opportunity to face the Filipino icon fighter by making demands bordering on the outrageous. And so, Pacquiao opted to fight Margarito to end his year on Nov. 13 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas, which granted Margarito his fight license after he was stripped of his paper in California for a serious infraction committed when he fought Shane Mosley in 2009. He was found to have used a plaster-like substance to harden his hand wraps against Mosley. Despite Margarito’s ugly history, he was Pacquiao’s choice for an opponent. Pacquiao even backed him up when he sought his fighting license in Texas. Pacquiao’s handlers, however, are confident Pacquiao will beat Margarito despite their big disparity in size. “Manny has always fought the bigger, stronger fighters,” said Alex Ariza, Pacquiao’s strength coach. “Manny likes challenges, nothing easy going into a fight. We are taking on a huge fighter in Margarito.” Pacquiao’s adviser, Michael Koncz, also expects a huge turnout of 75,000 expectators into Cowboys Stadium as a way to silence critics who claimed pay-per-view buys of the fight would be problematic. “I think that if they open the stadium up, we’ll fill it with 75,000. With Clottey, we did 50-something thousand and set a new record. And there are a lot of Hispanics in that area. We have the good-guy, bad-guy element, so I think that we’ll do it,” said Koncz. “I think that it’s going to be a very exciting fight. As I said before, styles make fights. Antonio Margarito has a one-demensional style,” said Koncz.
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