Shifting Gears (Boxing)

Share Button

The Antonio Margarito versus Manny Pacquiao bout scheduled for November 13th at “Jerryworld” or Cowboys Stadium as it is formally known is wrong. Wrong in that Margarito, who should be shamed because of plaster-like inserts found in his hand wraps before a January 2009 loss to Shane Mosley, is being allowed to box again.

I’ve always enjoyed watching Margarito box. Tough guy and all that, and a gifted performer. But Margarito laying all the blame on his trainer Javier Capetillo and saying that he (Margarito) knew nothing of the inserts in his wraps is hogwash.

It’s like an elevator in  an outhouse, it just doesn’t fit.

Look, I’ve boxed, been around the game for years. I have fought as a professional fighter and I’ve had my hands wrapped by a professional trainer and i knew exactly what was going on. By virtue of how you have to sit when you get your hands wrapped, it’s either spend the time looking at your trainer, who’s also probably spent years in the ring, and therefore is not the prettiest picture in the room, or look at your hands. I used the time to look at my hands. There’s no way a hard substance could slide by my gaze.

I’ve also worked the corners of many boxers, wrapped their hands. The wrap has to be precise, and if the trainer is doing his job, there’s plenty of feed-back coming from the boxer to make sure the wrap job is right.

Putting a hard substance like plaster inserts into a boxers hand wraps is lethal. I don’t know how anybody could do that and look themselves in the mirror.

Antonio Margarito should be suspended. Period. Ditto for the trainer.