Trainer: Antonio Margarito 'Stops' Manny Pacquiao Late -- FanHouse

By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse

It appears that seven-division champion and present WBO welterweight (147 pounds) king Manny Pacquiao will pursue his eighth crown in as many different weight divisions on Nov. 13, either in Las Vegas or Mexico, against ex-world champion Antonio Margarito (pictured above, at right), doing battle for the vacant WBC junior middleweight (154 pounds) crown.

Margarito is coming off of May's 10-round, unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia in Mexico, which helped him to rebound from a ninth-round knockout loss to Shane Mosley in January 2009. Prior to the bout, Mosley's trainer, Naazim Richardson, discovered that the Mexican's fist wrappings included a plaster-like substance that was subsequently removed and confiscated.

Although Margarito has claimed no knowledge of how his hands were taped, blaming former trainer Javier Capetillo, he still is not legal to fight in America -- this after his boxing license was revoked by the California State Athletic Commission following the illegal hand-wrapping scandal that was the result of the Mosley fight.

In this Q&A, FanHouse spoke to Margarito's new trainer, Robert Garcia, regarding his fighter's past, and his potential to defeat Pacquiao. Margarito is promoted by Top Rank Promotions.


FanHouse: So when will you begin training Antonio Margarito for Manny Pacquiao?

Robert Garcia: The first week of September. Right. That will give us about 10 weeks of training before the fight. But Antonio is always in the gym anyway. He runs every day as part of his regular workout. But our boxing regimen will begin officially 10 weeks before the fight.


FH: What has Antonio said to you about the entire hand-wrapping scandal?

RG: Honestly, like I've told everybody and I'll tell you the same thing, when a trainer is wrapping hands, the fighter is normally listening to music, listening to their iPod or something. They don't pay attention to what's going on with the wrapping.

You know, they give us all of the trust. I've wrapped fighters from Nonito Donaire to Joan Guzman to Steven Luevano. I've done it for a number of world title fights.

Of all of the fighters that I have, not one single time have they asked, 'Can I see what's on the wraps?" or "can I see what's on the padding?'

They trust me and they believe that I'm doing a good job, and I want them to believe that I'm doing a good job. Every fighter, even when I was fighting, whoever wrapped my hands, I wasn't questioning it. It wasn't like, 'What's there?' or 'what are you putting in there?'

I just stuck my hands out there, listened to music and let my trainer do the job. That's the way that it's supposed to be, and that's the way that it's always been. Antonio and I talk about it a little bit. We tried to kid around about it. We try anyway. But he's always said the same thing.

He's like, 'just like you're doing right now. I'm not asking you what you're putting in the wraps. I'm letting you do your job.' He said, 'that's what I always did with my former trainer.'


FH: Have you ever met Javier Capetillo, and what do you think of what he did?

RG: I've known him for years. Since I was a fighter, I've always known Capetillo. He's a very nice person outside of the ring. Always helped us out if we needed sparring. He would let us come out to Los Angeles. Myself, my dad, Fernando Vargas. He would always give us sparring and everything.

He's a good person, but I don't know what he was thinking or why he would do something like that or what his intentions were. It's something that, you know, I wasn't there to tell you how things went. All that I've heard is what Antonio has said to me and what I've read.

That's how I know what happened. I don't ask him questions about, 'Why did Capetillo do this?' or 'why did he do that?' That's none of my business. Now, he's with me, and I'm doing my best, and I've always done a good job with my fighters.

Antonio is happy with the way that I wrap his hands. He's actually surprised. He's happy and everybody that I work with and that I wrap is happy.


FH: What do you believe that the public perception is of this fight?

RG: What I hear is what I read. But everybody who has talked to me says that Antonio has done his year and served his time and his suspension. So he's paid his dues. They should give him an opportunity to fight again.

He's got a new team and new people behind him. Nobody's ever heard any controversy around myself or my team, so they've got nothing bad to say about the new team that he's with. Like I said, the fighters put their hands out there and the trainer does the job.

I'm pretty sure that Margarito is going to do well in this fight and give us good results.


FH: How do you believe that Antonio will do against Manny Pacquiao?

RG: Well, I'm on top of that. I've been watching Manny's fights. I've been watching Freddie Roach also. Freddie Roach is a great trainer, and I respect him. But I've learned some things about the way that they train and the way that Manny Pacquiao fights.

I think that I've got a good idea about how they're going to try to fight against us. I think that we have a great chance. Antonio's last fight with Roberto Garcia, he'll be much better than that. That was his first fight with me and he did what I asked him to do.

He fought smart, moved around, boxed. I honestly thought that he looked really good. He was different from the Margarito that the world had come to know, and that we all knew. He was not the guy that came straight forward and get hit and just wore down his opponent.

With me, I just told him that he's not just a guy that goes out and gets hit and gets into wars. I said, 'show these people that you can also box.' He came out, knocked Roberto down in the first round, and wound up winning a unanimous decision.

He played around with Garcia and showed the world that he's got skills. He's got skills and good footwork. We worked about three months before his last fight, so, this next time, he'll be even better. I think that we have a good chance.


FH: I understand that there is a catch weight of 150 pounds for this fight?

RG: I believe that the fight will be at a catch weight of 150 pounds, and 150 is no problem for Antonio. The last time he came in to camp, he was 12 pounds over where he had to fight, which was 154. Two weeks before the fight, he was already on weight.

So he had no problem making that weight. So he will be a very strong fighter in there against Manny Pacquiao.


FH: Do you have a prediction?

RG: Obviously, I've never called fights or ever predicted anything. I just know that Antonio will have the heart and the power and the conditioning to be a great champion and to beat anybody out there.

But I think that we can get him in the later rounds. So I'm going to say that maybe Antonio stops him in the later rounds.

Source: boxing.fanhouse.com