Margarito to make return in Mexico -- ESPN

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

Former welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito is coming back, presumably without trying to load his gloves this time.

Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) will make his ring return against untested Roberto Garcia (28-2, 21 KOs) on May 8 in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Top Rank's Bob Arum told ESPN.com on Wednesday.

The scheduled 10-round junior middleweight fight will headline Top Rank's "Latin Fury 14" on pay-per-view.

Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) hasn't fought since January 2009, when he lost his welterweight title via ninth-round knockout to Shane Mosley at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Before the fight, Margarito was discovered to have illegal pads coated with a plaster-like substance in his hand wraps. After Margarito's hands were re-wrapped, Mosley knocked him out and he subsequently had his license revoked by the California State Athletic Commission because of the illegal wraps.

In February, Margarito became eligible to be re-licensed, although he has not returned to California seeking a license. He did attempt to get a license in Texas to fight on the March 13 Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey undercard, but before his application was ruled on Texas regulators wanted to have a hearing on the matter. Top Rank elected to put another fight on the card instead rather than go through with a hearing.

Although Margarito's license was revoked in California, and he has yet to be re-licensed anywhere in the United States, getting a license in Mexico is a formality. Officials there are not bound by United States rules and have said publicly they would welcome Margarito there.

Margarito will be moving up to junior middleweight, but could return to welterweight.

"He'll fight at junior middleweight and then, depending on who he will fight in his next fight, he might get back down to welterweight," Arum said. "Margarito really wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and that would be at welterweight. If the Pacquiao fight isn't there, he might face the winner of the [June 5] fight between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto."

In July 2008, in the fight before he faced Mosley, Margarito stopped Cotto in the 11th round to win a welterweight title in a result that has been tainted because so many believe his gloves were loaded for that fight.

Trainer Javier Capetillo, who inserted the illegal pads into Margarito's gloves, also had his license revoked by California regulators after the fight with Mosley. Capetillo and Margarito have since parted ways and Margarito is now being trained by California's Robert Garcia, a former junior lightweight titleholder with a growing stable of fighters. (He is not related to Margarito's opponent.)

Roberto Garcia, a native of Mexico who lives in Weslaco, Texas, is 13-0 with a no contest in his last 14 fights over the past six years.

Top Rank also formally announced the May 8 pay-per-view undercard: Jorge Solis against Mario Santiago for Solis' interim junior lightweight title; Brandon Rios against Urbano Antillon in a 1-round lightweight clash and flyweight prospect Alonso Lopez, the son of Hall of Famer Ricardo Lopez, in a four-rounder against an opponent to be determined.

Dan Rafael is ESPN.com's boxing writer.

Source: sports.espn.go.com