Pacquiao Vs. Margarito: To Hell and “Pac”

Pacquiao Vs. Margarito: To Hell and “Pac”

(First published in Boxingnews24)

If you can’t be good, be careful. Antonio Margarito was neither on the night Old Shane Mosley handed him a beating.  In that fight, he got caught and fought like he never knew how. He was never the feared fighter advertised or thought of before that fight. But then maybe he was just missing those awesome loaded gloves. Without which it begs to be asked, was he really ever good? There was hell to pay and then Time will tell.

With the Pacquiao – Margarito fight looming, that time is almost upon us. Margarito was already through hell, or so we have been made to believe. Come November 13, Redemption awaits him like the persistent bride at the gate.

Judging from recent history, Margarito was still nowhere near good against the journeyman Roberto Garcia. The fact, however, doesn’t make him less of a monster. Bear in mind he lobbied for a Pacquiao fight. Considering that he’s towering over Pacquiao and is having as much as a 7-inch advantage in reach, a pathetic showing might have been his way of getting the Pacquiao lottery ticket. (Or so we wish, if the fight is to be competitive.)

In a different way, that is the very reason why Floyd Mayweather is not fighting Pacquiao for Boxing’s Superbowl. The Filipino sensation shines like a halogen lamp in his previous bouts which is a bad omen for Floyd who thinks he’ll be in a bout he could not win. But I digress.

In the absence of Floyd Mayweather, Pacquiao was offered a viable alternative – a beatable Goliath in Margarito with the promise of a record 8^th belt, with many even viewing him a sacrifice to the little devil’s altar. Now, after getting the fight it doesn’t mean Margarito needs to follow the script. Scripts are for lesser mortals like Clottey who in the end always finds a way to lose. Margarito needs to be the Tijuana Tornado once more, the superior force that brought Cotto down to his knees (loaded gloves or not).

Still, the Pacman can’t be stopped by either man or beast these days.  In order to win, Margarito has to be something else.

Come fight night, boxing won’t ask Margarito whether he had lost his moral compass. He’d only be demanded to stop a freak of nature at all cause or go down trying.

No, Margarito doesn’t have to be good this time. To beat Pacquiao, it’s time for him to step up and unleash whatever demons he has within and become a real Monster.

 It’s all in his hands now.

(Margarito obviously wasn't good or bad enough to derail the Pac express as the after fight photo above would show.)