“I would like to congratulate Manny Pacquiao for his win on Saturday Night. It was a tough and difficult fight for me and I hope the fans enjoy our battle at Cowboys Stadium.”
“I also want to thank Bob Arum for always believing in me and for giving me the opportunity to fight Manny Pacquiao. I also want to thank all the fans who came to see me and who watched the fight on TV and continue to support me.”
“I gave it all I had, but unfortunately I was not able to get the victory over the best fighter in the world today. As I said before the fight, I was never going to quit and tried to win this fight to the very last minute.”
“We had a great training camp and I want to thank Robert Garcia for a great job and everyone in Oxnard for their great hospitality. I am also very grateful with my wife Michel, Sergio Diaz and Francisco Espinoza for all their support.”
Antonio Margarito is schedule to have surgery tomorrow in Dallas, and hopes to fly to Los Angeles on Wednesday, and then return to his home in Tijuana, Mexico.
Margarito will have surgery on Tuesday at Dallas Methodist Hospital to repair a fractured right eye socket, said promoter Bob Arum. Arum explained the surgery can’t be performed until the swelling on the eye has reduced.
Pacquiao’s speed was far too much for Margarito to handle Saturday in their bout for the World Boxing Council super welterweight title before 41,734 fans at Cowboys Stadium. Pacquiao landed fast, hard combinations from the earliest moments of the fight and Margarito could not answer.
Ringside physician Manuel Gonzalez, who started checking Margarito in the fourth round and last checked him after the 11th round, said Saturday he felt Margarito could see, so he didn’t recommend to referee Laurence Cole to stop the match. Trainer Robert Garcia said Margarito would not allow him to halt it. Pacquiao started pointing out the damage during the ninth round, but Cole did not stop the fight.
“He’s in very good spirits and he’s not in pain,” Arum said. “They just have to wait until the swelling reduces, then they can do the surgery and he’ll be released to fly home.”
Arum said Margarito’s team, including co-managers Francisco Espinoza and Sergio Diaz, remained in Dallas with him and will fly home to Southern California together on Wednesday, if he is released as expected.
Arum said that as far as is known now, the injury is not career-threatening. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said after the fight Saturday that Garcia “probably ruined his career by not stopping the fight.”
Margarito is taking a long journey back into boxing after the hand-wrapping incident on the day of his fight against Shane Mosley last year. It looks as if Antonio Margarito is hungrier than Manny Pacquiao to win their Nov. 13 matchup.
Given a license to fight in Texas, and another chance to prove to the world that he will be more hungry to succeed this time, Margarito came back stronger than ever, and with a new trainer, Robert Garcia, who is taking a risk in only his second fight with Margarito.
Let's do some flash back. Margarito's previous trainer, Javier Capetillo, wrapped his hands with Mosley's trainer Naazim Richardson looking on. It was Richardson who pointed out that the hand must be wrapped around once with one roll of tape. After Richardson checked the tape on Margarito's hands, something fell out. It was found to be a piece of plaster. That was the psychological advantage that Mosley needed to knock Margarito out.
So, after Margarito lost the fight, and later, his boxing license in California, where the fight took place, his place in the boxing arena evaporated.
Pacquiao wraps his own hands, but on fight night, his trainer, Freddie Roach, must wrap them.
The Pac-Man, said in the first installment of HBO's 24/7 that Margarito knew. He even joked that Margarito pretended that he didn't know what was going on. Believe me, Roach will watch the wrapping on Margarito's hands.
Pacquiao is giving up some height and a little weight. He likes to fight bigger boxers. I think the speed of Pacquiao will prevail. Let's see if Manny The Pac-Man Pacquiao could destroy Margarito.
Boxing Experts Views on Pacquiao - Margarito Fight
Boxing historian Bert Sugar is picking World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao over former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito in their November 13 fight at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Sugar, 73, and former publisher-editor of Boxing Illustrated and Ring magazine, told FanHouse.com’s Elie Seckbach in a brief video interview that Pacquiao is “too fast” for the bigger Margarito, a former three-time world welterweight titlist.
Sugar also thinks that Marga-rito “throws a lot of wild pun-ches,” which would create openings for Pacquiao to deliver his power punches.
But boxing commentator and trainer Teddy Atlas thinks Margarito would pose serious problems for Pacquiao because of his size advantage and power.
“As far as the fight goes with Margarito, I think that’s a dangerous fight for [Pacquiao],” told Percy Crawford of FightHype.com.
“I personally think Pacquiao could lose this fight. I think that you’ve got a naturally bigger guy. He is really the bigger guy because Margarito is a big welterweight. He’s a horse,” Atlas said in breaking Pacquiao-Margarito.
He said the 5’11” Margarito throws a lot of punches and is capable of hitting and hurting Pacquiao.
“[Margarito] presents a lot of areas of danger and real potential problems for Pacquiao that he hasn’t faced for awhile . . . The opportunity is there to hit this guy [Pacquiao],” Atlas said.
Atlas said that although Pacquiao has fought bigger foes before—Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey—none of them is as big as Margarito, who enjoys a five-inch height advantage and seven-inch reach edge over Pacquiao.
Atlas—a trainer who has worked with the likes of world heavyweight champion Michael Moorer, light heavyweight titlist Danny Lalonde and featherweight champion Barry McGuigan—said he finds the
Margarito fight too risky at this point in Pacquiao’s career, adding that there were less dangerous opponents available for him to fight and still make as much money.
“I’m not sure that if I was managing Pacquiao, that I would be saying, ‘You know what, at this point in his career, he needs to fight Margarito,’” Atlas said.
The HBO pay-per-view televised Pacquiao-Margarito will be for the vacant World Boxing Council junior middleweight title (154 pounds) at an agreed catch weight of 151.
