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Will Margarito Make Mandatory?
By Steve Kim (Jan 10, 2007)

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This much is clear - on March 3rd, WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto will defend his title against Otkay Urkal in Puerto Rico on HBO.

"Showtime didn't match HBO's offer," said Cotto’s promoter, Bob Arum. As for WBO welterweight titlist, Antonio Margarito, where does that leave him on that night? Currently, his mandatory against Paul Williams is due.

"Margarito is going to fight a 10-round fight," Arum would say on Monday afternoon. "They're going to give him permission to fight a 10 round fight without taking his title on the grounds he was hurt, so we can fight a 10-round fight."

Top Rank's plans are for Cotto and Margarito to face each other on June 9th at Madison Square Garden on a pay-per-view show.

But it's not clear if the WBO, the 'they' that Arum is referring to, has actually given Margarito the option of taking a non-title bout and having Williams, who is promoted by Goossen-Tutor, fight for an interim title or the like.

According to Margarito's manager, Sergio Diaz: "We received a phone call from 'Paco' Valcarcel (WBO president) yesterday, telling us that Dan Goossen's attorney sent him a letter threatening litigation if Antonio wasn't stripped of his title unless he fought Williams."

When contacted on Tuesday, Arum said he had no knowledge of said letter.

So 'the Tijuana Tornado' will not fight Williams?

"That's not true. We'll fight him, we'll fight Paul Williams," Diaz would say Tuesday to Maxboxing. "Antonio has always said he'll fight Paul Williams. But, if Goossen thinks, or Williams thinks, that because this fight is a mandatory, Antonio is going to be fighting him, no, that's not going to happen that way. They got to put up or shut up."

In other words, like they did with a certain fighter, make a bona fide offer instead of just posturing through the media.

"Exactly, exactly," said Diaz.

Nothing is keeping Goossen from making an offer to Margarito (Maxboxing was unsuccessful in its attempts to reach him the past few days to get his comments). It's clear why Arum may want to steer clear of that bout, but Diaz says, "If Goossen makes us an offer that we can't turn down, that's what fight we're going to take. But if they're going to play games and talk like they're talking and Margarito's afraid, it's not going to happen. If they think that's the way they're going to lower us to fight Williams, that fight’s not going to happen.

"And we'll fight March 3rd, against whoever it is."

As for his boxer’s health, he says, "He did train yesterday and he still feels pain on the hand. So that's the only thing worrying us, the hand injury and that's why we asked 'Paco' for more time - because of the hand injury. We didn't want to go into a Williams fight not being 100-percent. Look at what happened with Clottey. Tony went in there at 75-percent, hand injury and ankle injury - and look at how that fight ended up."

POOR GUYS

Thomas Hauser of Secondsout.com wrote an excellent piece about the current state of affairs at HBO ('HBO Boxing: the Challenge'). If you haven't done so, you should check it out.

It's funny, but to hear the laments of the HBO executives, it's like the New York Yankees bemoaning their plight as if they're the Kansas City Royals. They still have every conceivable advantage in the world, yet they still can't get it right post-Seth Abraham/Lou DiBella.

And to read (once again, like last year at this time) how they are refocused on getting back to their roots and really revitalizing their boxing program, they remind you of that sports franchise that is in a five-year rebuilding program for 25 years.

Just look at their early schedule - their first bout of the year on January 20th features Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo against 'opponents' as a prelude to a June bout. Ray Austin is being used as cannon fodder for Wladimir Klitschko. I hear that they paid about $2.5 million for Cotto-Urkal, a fight that is again, another prelude to another fight. And with what they have done to the economic landscape of this industry, Marco Antonio Barrera-Juan Manuel Marquez, which is a great fight but one that would have been on regular HBO seven, eight years ago, is on pay-per-view.

There used to be a time when you got HBO to get just about all of the biggest fights in the sport. Now, it seems you are paying the subscription for this network for the pleasure of paying another extra 50 bucks to get the fights you really want to see on pay-per-view.

It's funny how some grieve about the fact that they no longer have a yearly boxing budget hovering around $100,000,000 to make fights. Yeah, poor guys, I don't see how you can even make four and six round bouts with 'just' $40 million or so to play with.

Bottom line, get out of the business of promoting fighters, and just make compelling fights. Play hardball with fighters instead of being star-struck jock sniffers who will allow fighters to negotiate their way out of anticipated fights (like Winky Wright did with Jermain Taylor) and then give them trapdoors (such as then accepting a Wright fight against Ike Quartey for $3 million). And most of all, stop trying to put real promoters out of business. After all, they are the ones who are developing the talent that will carry this sport in the upcoming years.

THINGS I HEARD

Juan Diaz is off the February 3rd card in Miami, Florida, where he was slated to make his mandatory defense. I hear now that Don King and Gary Shaw are discussing a March bout between 'the Baby Bull' and Joel Casamayor.

And I've been told that the proposed bout between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez is very close to becoming a reality. Most likely, it will take place in April.