In less than a week’s time Antonio Margarito and his team will find themselves in Dallas, Texas for their November 13th bout with Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium. Despite being a heavy underdog and having dealt with the aftermath of his January 2009 hand wrap scandal, Margarito is extremely focused heading into the bout and the overall vibe in his camp has been very care free.
Earlier today Margarito and his trainer Robert Garcia continued their training for the contest at the coach’s personal facility in Oxnard, California. Garcia insists that the core of the hard work has been complete and by the time they arrive in Texas they will be focusing solely on cutting down Margarito’s weight.“I’ve been maintaining him right at 158, 156,” Garcia said last week during Margarito’s open media workout in Los Angeles. “Sometimes he gets back up to 159, 160 and around there. The last week or so is when we will cut down.”
Those numbers were fairly peculiar, as Garcia advised me well over a month ago that Margarito was hovering around 159 pounds, but the former world champion obviously feels he has a handle on the situation. On this day Margarito could be seen sporting a sweat suit, which typically is associated with a fighter trying to cut serious pounds, but when looking at Margarito’s physique he certainly didn’t appear weight drained during his workout for the press on Thursday.
When thinking of Margarito’s chances in this bout many people are turning to his July 2008 TKO over Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. In that fight Margarito took over the contest with sheer pressure and nonstop activity, dropping the brave Boricua in twice late in the fight before registering an 11th round stoppage. It was an excellent showcase of breaking an opponent’s will but Garcia feels that benchmark performance was also hindering to Margarito’s career.
“After the Cotto fight he was on top of the world,” Garcia said. “Everywhere he traveled he just had a good time. He was just loving life at that point and he spent too much time out of the gym. When he came back to get ready for the [Mosley] fight, six weeks before the fight he was close to forty pounds overweight. That in itself, to lose forty pounds in six weeks, is not only a bad move but dangerous. He had to lose all that weight and going into that fight he had nothing.”
Source: examiner.com
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