By Brent Matteo Alderson

Recently one of the sport’s beat writers commented that members of the media were overly critical of Antonio Margarito because they hadn’t bought into his prowess as a fighter and used the incident with the wraps to validate their original opinion of him in order appease their own egos.  This writer also wrote that certain journalists were quick to disparage Margarito in an attempt to devalue the writers that held the Mexican slugger in high regard.  Talk about some baloney, hasn’t everyone heard of Dempsey-Willard?

Jack Dempsey tore Jesse Willard apart in three rounds and gave the 6’6 giant, who outweighed him by more than fifty pounds, a beating that lasted a life time. 

During the course of the three brutal rounds, Dempsey shattered Willard’s cheek bone in twelve places, fractured his jaw in thirteen places and cracked two ribs. 

Willard could never internalize how Dempsey was able to give him such a comprehensive ass-whipping and in 1964 when Sports Illustrated printed Doc Kearn’s confession that he had indeed laced Dempsey’s glove with a plaster of Paris type substance, an 80 year old Jess Willard commented “I’m glad Kearns finally admitted it.  I’ve been saying that for forty-five years but nobody would believe me.  They thought I was just a loser complaining.  My jaw is still caved in from the beating I got.” 

Although the two combatants had put their gloves on in the ring and numerous witnesses of unquestionable integrity had verified that the gloves hadn’t been tampered with, the allegation conjured up debate that has lasted almost a hundred years. 

That’s because the very idea of applying a substance that would render a fighter’s fists more lethal than their opponents not only obliterates the very spirit of competition that makes boxing so great, but also exponentially increases the health risks that the boxing establishment has tried so hard to reduce. 

The writers that have defended Margarito in spite of the lab reports are really the ones that have an ulterior motive. 

Those writers don’t want to winkle the feathers of the sport’s power brokers and yearn to gain the company’s favor by supporting Margarito even though they should be condemning him.       

At least it’s understandable why Top Rank is supporting Margarito.  The Mexican slugger turned professional at the age of fifteen and started out his career with a mediocre 9-3 record and had to fight his way to the top. 

Nobody gave Margarito a thing.  He wasn’t charismatic or good looking and didn’t fight with the type of pizzazz that brings young pugilists notoriety. 

He just went out and fought hard and worked his way to the top.  He was a blue collar guy through and through. 

And when he finally did achieve a certain type of prominence, guys like De La Hoya, Mosley, and Mayweather wouldn’t fight him and he had to fight guerrillas like Joshua Clottey and an undefeated Kermit Cintron. 

Through everything, all the obstacles and hurdles, he was loyal to Top Rank and they were loyal to him and Arum maintained a stead-fast belief in Margarito despite his losses to Daniel Santos and Paul Williams. 

And after all the sacrifices, Top Rank and Antonio finally arrived at the light, at the end of the tunnel, when he ascended to the top of the boxing world with his now questionable destruction of Miguel Cotto. 

In finally achieving fistic success the two had shared the greatest path of all - that of redemption and triumph.  As a result, what happened the night of January 24 in the Staples Center has put the Las Vegas based promotional outfit in a compromised position.      

I’m not trying to disparage Top Rank.  Bob Arum is the best promoter in the world.  

Top Rank always keeps their fighters active and always provides them with valuable television exposure. 

Nobody in the business can take an amateur standout and develop them into a star quite like Arum.

 

The manner in which he guided the careers of Michael Carbajal, Oscar De La Hoya, and Miguel Cotto was near-genius because he matched them in a way that not only developed their marketability, but their talent as well

Arum and the people at Top Rank have to realize that this situation is completely different. At this moment their unyielding support of Margarito isn’t virtuous, but viral, because they aren’t backing the Margarito that embodies the traits of the blue collar worker - they are supporting a fighter that was going to cheat in order to win a prize fight.  

Right now Antonio Margarito is like a blue collar worker that stole money out of the cash register and not the quiet, hard working, unassuming professional he’s been throughout his career.   

So far both Top Rank and Margarito have uncharacteristically handled the situation in an unprofessional manner by seemingly taking the offensive against the California State Athletic Commission.  The company has hired superstar attorney Daniel Petrocelli and Arum has already stated that Margarito would disregard the one year suspension and fight in another country if it was enforced. 

That was before the lab results confirmed that "plaster of Paris elements" were present in Margarito's hand wraps before has due to step in the ring with Shane Mosley.

More recently at the Latin Fury card in Tijuana Top Rank representative Lee

Samuels stated that they still hadn’t seen the commission’s lab results, “We need to see the evidence, we haven’t seen it.”          

Later on in the evening, in the hotel, another Top Rank representative, Ricardo Jimenez, commented, “Margarito didn’t really commit a crime because he never entered the ring with those wraps, he didn’t do anything.”

I hope Top Rank doesn’t try to vindicate Margarito through a series of legal maneuvers and try to get him off on a technicality. Top Rank has the resources to start an official inquiry designed to question the validity of the process used in the confiscation of the wraps or they could go another route and choose to defend Margarito from the premise that he actually never entered the ring with illegal wraps.  

Unfortunately, it seems as if they are going to go down that path and contest the one year suspension.

I bumped into Margarito in Tijuana and asked him if he had noticed any type of substance on his wraps and asked him if his trainer, Javier Capetillo, had done it without his knowledge, and the Mexican fighter who has always exuded class, took the route that people without class usually take, “I can’t say anything, talk to my lawyer.  I can’t talk about it; you are going to have to speak with my lawyer.”  

Basically it comes down to two possibilities.  (1) Margarito’s trainer applied the substance without his knowledge or (2) they both knew.  That’s it, two possibilities, plain and simple.  Cut and dry.   

And if Margarito is innocent, he should proclaim his innocence, talk to the different media outlets, volunteer to take a lie detector test, and publicly question his trainer because if he was ignorant about what happened - then Cepatillo endangered his career as well as his reputation and deserves to be vilified and needs to be suspended for at least a ten year period, if not for life. 

In my opinion, Margarito is probably innocent and should do what’s right and wait out his year suspension and come back in 2010.  Ignorance isn’t always bliss and there’s definitely some negligence on his part for not noticing the substance and a year suspension seems more than fair. 

For his part in the fight with Billy Collins, Luis Resto served two and a half years in prison and was banned from boxing for life. 

Fighting in Mexico and circumventing the CSAC's decision would negatively impact Margarito’s image as well as the sport’s.  At the end of the day someone needs to take responsibility for what happened.

Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at krikya360.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”  Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com