De La Hoya sells Marquez as Pacquiao's next fight -- Los Angeles Times

By Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times

Oscar De La Hoya has railed against the possible reinstatement of Antonio Margarito, who was re-denied a license Wednesday by the California State Athletic Commission.

Even though Margarito has now taken his case for reinstatement to Texas, where he's poised to fight Manny Pacquiao Nov. 13 at Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas, De La Hoya said in a Thursday conference call that Margarito should be kept out of the ring for nearly taking gloves loaded with plaster inserts into his failed January 2009 welterweight title defense against Shane Mosley.

Former world champion De La Hoya insisted that fighters know if there's something amiss inside their hand wraps, like the presence of plaster inserts.

Promoter De La Hoya, of course, has another reason for saying that, starting with the fact that he wants his fighter, Juan Manuel Marquez, to fight Pacquiao for a third time instead.

"The case I want to make is that Marquez is right there, already licensed," De La Hoya said.

Marquez fought Pacquiao to a stirring draw in 2004, then was defeated by the Filipino superstar in a narrow split decision in 2008.

In July, Marquez made a strong case for getting another shot at Pacquiao by defending his lightweight title impressively against Juan Diaz.

But Pacquiao and Margarito are promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank, and Arum hasn't spoken to the chief executive of De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, Richard Scahefer, since January, when they first failed to make a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. super-fight.

"We feel if Golden Boy and Top Rank can make big fights, it's a win-win situation for everyone -- the fighters and the fans," De La Hoya said. "We're going to do what's best for the fans."

A Marquez-Pacquiao bout would face intense negotiation over which weight it would be fought at -- with Marquez weighing 135 pounds for his July bout and Pacquiao planning to fight Margarito at 154 -- along with the purse-split questions.

A Top Rank representative told The Times on Thursday that a Golden Boy representative has yet to contact Top Rank about making the fight.

So Pacquiao is moving full steam ahead toward plans to fight Margarito, hopeful that Texas buys Margarito's account that he had no idea his since-fired trainer Javier Capetillo had put the inserts atop both of his hands.

Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com