Margarito’s attorney punches back, says the loaded-gloves stories are “completely false” -- 15Rounds

By Norm Frauenheim, 15Rounds.com

Attorney Daniel Pertocelli dismissed reports that Antonio Margarito’s gloves were loaded with a rock-like substance before he was ordered to re-wrap his hands before a loss to Shane Mosley more than a year ago in Los Angeles.

“Completely false,’’ Petrocelli said Monday in a conference call that included Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who is promoting Margarito’s return to the ring in Mexico on May 8.

Arum said he scheduled the conference call in an attempt to correct conclusions that he says were based on “misinformation” about circumstances that led to a one-year revocation of Margarito’s license by the California State Athletic Commission.

Margarito, who has been free to re-apply for a license in the United States since February, is scheduled to appear at a news conference Tuesday at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Petrocelli said an “irregularity” was discovered in the gauze above one knuckle in the wraps when Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson asked for a closer look before opening bell of a welterweight fight on Jan 24 at Staples Center. The California commission conducted a forensic test of the wraps, said Petrocelli, who said he was not allowed to have different experts conduct a second test.

The California test turned up traces of calcium and sulfur, according to Petrocelli, who said both substances can be found in hand creams.

Pertocelli also dismissed talk that Margarito used similar wraps in the summer of 2008 in an upset of Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. He called the speculation a “myth.”

California and Nevada rules are different, said Petrocelli, who won a wrongful death judgment in 1997 against O.J. Simpson in civil court. In California, trainers are allowed to bring their own wraps. Nevada provides the wraps. Javier Capitello, Margarito’s trainer for Mosley, also had his license revoked for 12 months. Robert Garcia of Oxnard, Calif., is Margarito’s current trainer.

Margarito has said consistently that he did not know Capetillo had wrapped his hands illegally. In an interview with 15 Rounds on March 11 in a lobby of a Dallas-area hotel before Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium; Margarito said; “I did nothing wrong.’’

Petrocelli said he is trying to clear Margarito’s name with an appeal in the California courts. He expects a ruling sometime this year. Meanwhile, Arum plans to apply for license in the U.S. after Margarito’s May 8 bout against Roberto Garcia in Aguascalientes.

“His next fight will be in the United States,’’ said Arum, who was unable to get Margarito licensed in Texas in time for him to fight on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard.

Source: 15rounds.com