Next stop, Margaritoville: Redemption means taking a licking from Manny Pacquiao -- Examiner

By Michael Marley, Examiner.com

SAN DIEGO EN ROUTE TO OXNARD—You call it Oxnard, I call it Margaritoville.

That’s where trainer and former IBF junior lightweight champion Robert Garcia has apparently spread his wings, leaving the La Colonia Gym for one of his own, and is prepping the Disgraced One, Antonio Margarito, for his so called chance at redemption Nov. 13 against Manny Pacquiao.

This redemption is simple for the 6 ½ -1 betting underdog from Tijuana, really.

All the bigger, stronger and dare I say dirtier (in tactics) fighter has to do is to show up at Cowboys Stadium, make the specified contract weight, and then fight the fight without resorting to what he euphemistically referred to as an “unfair advantage” over the Fighting Congressman from poverty-stricken Sarangani Province.

In other words, in this fight between two foreigners (although Pacquiao is now well established as America’s Favorite Boxer with Mayweather being merely the Most Notorious), Margarito and Garcia must be sure there are no foreign objects, to wit plaster or any other cement like substance underneath the Mexican’s gloves.

It’s doubtful that even a spec, a scintilla or even a shred of anything illegal will wind up in Tone Loc’s gloves as this handwrapping procedure will the most closely observed one in boxing history.

It’s a wonder that Bob Arum didn’t try to set up a separate PPV TV showing just for Garcia’s meticulous wrapping of Margarito’s mitts.

You know, WATCH THE HANDWRAPPING OF MARGARITO, IT MIGHT BE LIKE SEEING THE WATERGATE BURGLARY IN PROGRESS.

This could be the biggest public sideshow since OJ Simpson and pal Al Cowlings were roling down the freeway in the white Ford Bronco.

I bet Arum thinks he should charge $9.95 just for that preflight look in, sort of a tasty appetizer before the $50 main course.

But, again, I expect no dressing room crimes in Arlington, Texas, as Garcia is an earnest and honest lad, this I know from the days when Scott Woodworth and I served as his co managers and Margarito is at least chastened as a result of the California commission suspension which kept him out of the ring for 16 months.

I sense Margarito’s shame. It comes through even in his appearance on the first of the four HBO 24/7 programs.

What I don’t sense is any admission of guilt and, if that ever comes out publicly, you can be sure that Margarito will sell his true story and it will happen when he’s well into retirement and no longer depending on boxing to put food on the family table.

So, at this point, I am keen on looking Margarito over, perhaps watching his assault some carefully chosen sparring partners.

Will that tell me more about any chance Margarito has to win, to upset the Pacman applecart?

Not really.

But I’m going there anyway.

I hear rumors that Pacman landed Saturday night at LAX.

I’ll get to the Wild Card shortly.

Maybe I’ll join the vagabonds at the Vagabond Inn, the low rent motel alongside Freddie Roach’s famous gym.

The Vagabond used to be a denizen of hookers and other crack heads.

These days, the only riffraff I’ve seen at the modest place where, long ago, Pacquiao used to bunk in are bedraggled boxing scribes.

But my immediate mission is to inspect Foreigner #2.

Redemption, I used to think it was when you took used bottles down to the supermarket.

Now I know the definition has been expanded and that it can be redemptive (is this a word?) to lace up a pair of gloves, have no cement in your hand wraps, and take a licking for a maximum length of 36 minutes including nine minutes of rest.

I expect no more of Margarito and I expect no less.

Margarito is a tradesman, putting aside all the cheating suspicions of his past fights where there was no sharp eyed Nazazim Richardson to blow the whistle.

But he’s a tradesman fighting a peaking craftsman. One guy's a generalist, the other a rare and unique southpaw specialist.

He’ll get his redemption, Margarito will, but what he won’t get is his hand raised in victory.

Remember, they are both Top Rank chattel and there is a reason Arum beyond self-enrichment that Margarito was the chosen one.

Margarito, he’s the guy who has been cordially invited to lose this fight.

But let’s see how the wind is blowing across the strawberry fields of Oxnard.

Maybe I can match Oxnard strawberries against the ones Hermengeildo Hermie Rivera is said to be bringing me from Baguio.

Time for a taste test becasuse, from what I hear, strawberries go well with Margaritos, I mean Margaritas.

(mlcmarley@aol.com)

Source: examiner.com