In Memory of Manuel Margarito

In Memory of Manuel Margarito
By Steve Kim (July 21, 2008)

This Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Antonio Margarito engages in the biggest fight of his career against the undefeated Miguel Cotto, and the stakes are high in what is the summer’s most anticipated event. For Margarito, after years and years of chasing the game’s marquee names, he finally gets his long-awaited opportunity to headline a major pay-per-view show. Defeating Cotto is a daunting task though, since 32 prior foes have tried with no success to topple the man who is just the latest boxing icon from Puerto Rico.

Some believe that it will take an effort beyond his own capabilities to down Cotto. Make no doubt about it, this is the best opponent he has ever faced. But it would not be accurate to say it's the most difficult circumstance he has ever fought under.

That distinction would have to be his fight against the noted journeyman Buck Smith on October 23rd, 1999 in Fort Worth, Texas. At that time, Margarito was still a fledgling prospect who, after some early losses, was coming in on a nine fight winning streak that had moved his overall record to 14-3. This bout versus Smith was expected to be just another routine outing to continue the development of the raw, heavy-handed slugger from Tijuana.

But on the night before the fight, this bout was put in jeopardy and Margarito's life was altered forever.

"We had just barely come back from the weigh-in, it was around 6:30, 7 o'clock, I remember we went for spaghetti and on the way back we stopped and said, 'Let's relax right here,' at the lobby. When suddenly I hear my name and they called me - it was Sergio," recalled Margarito's co-manager Francisco Espinoza. Sergio Diaz is the other co-manager.

The news wasn’t good. Margarito's wife Michelle, who was in Mexico, received word through her aunt in Southern California that Margarito’s beloved brother, Manuel, had been slain.

It would be Espinoza's job to tell his fighter the tragic news personally.

“Right away I went back to Tony. I said, 'What am I going to do? The fight’s tomorrow.' So I went and told him straight, 'Tony, something happened to Manuel and he passed away,' I never told him how he got killed. He said, 'What? My brothers dead!?!?'

For a few awkward seconds, an eerie silence filled the room, as he just stared back at Espinoza.

“He suddenly started crying, screaming," recalled the manager, who immediately made the decision to scratch the fight. He would go and tell Top Rank's matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, the circumstances surrounding their fighter. “That’s the saddest moment I've ever had in boxing," Espinoza says.

“It was difficult. I left, I walked away for a couple of hours," said Margarito, through Diaz, reflecting back on that period. "I went walking, I came back and I thought, 'Y'know what? I have to do this for myself, I have to do this for my brother.' And I asked if I would be able to go see him before the burial. I would fight this fight and dedicate this to him and that's what I did. I took this fight, and although my body was there, my mind was never there. My mind was on my brother."

Espinoza says that as Margarito gathered himself emotionally, "He called me, 'Francisco, I want this fight, I will fight.' So I went back to Bruce, 'Bruce, Tony says he's going to fight.' He said he was going to dedicate this fight to his brother. And for some reason, the day of the fight, he came out like Buck Smith was responsible for his brother’s death. He went like a lion with this guy."

He would stop Smith in six rounds. From there, the rush was on to get back home.

"I waited for Antonio, from Texas he flew directly to San Diego," recalled his wife, "and what happens in Mexico when you die they bury you right away. He barely made it and saw him. He cried like a little baby. He took his handwraps and gave them to his brother. He made promises he has fulfilled to his brother."

Manuel and Antonio were separated by just a couple of years and they both took up boxing. In a family of four - with two brothers and two sisters - that grew up in the typically poor section of Tijuana, they were best friends.

“My brother and I were always together, we were always together, inseparable," he says. "When I fought here, he would come watch me fight. When he would fight, I would watch him fight. Unfortunately that night he would not go with me. He had just gotten married, he had a child, a daughter and he was not able to join me. That's what happened."

The perpetrators of this crime were never apprehended and no real motives were ever given. Unfortunately, now, more than ever, murder and crime is a fact of life in Margarito's hometown.

"I don't know too much," Diaz says of the details regarding the homicide. "All I know is that he went home, sat down, turned on his television, and was murdered inside his own house."

The story of Margarito's brother really wasn't known outside his inner circle until he revealed it at the post-fight press conference following his sixth-round stoppage of Kermit Cintron in Atlantic City, New Jersey back in April. As he dedicated that performance to him, the story piqued the interest of the media, who asked more and more questions of his brother in the subsequent months. Diaz has mentioned more than once that throughout this particular training camp that his fighter has had problems getting a good night’s sleep. While some of it surely has to do with the magnitude of the upcoming fight, Diaz hypothesizes that rehashing that painful period in his life may have brought about more stress.

But the fighter insists, "It doesn't bother me at all; in fact, I'm happy that people ask and I'm happy that he's out there. I carry him in my heart. So when they ask me, it makes me happy. It does make me a little sad to think about what happened to him. I don't have him with me, but other than that, it doesn't bother me."

He says his brother is always on his mind and in his heart.

"I do constantly think about my brother. I carry my brother in my heart. If anything, as the fight gets closer, I'm dreaming as if we're together or somewhere he's with me. I do dream about him a lot. In regards to the fight with Cintron, that fight was dedicated to my brother because it was his birthday."

Manuel Margarito would've been 32 years old.

In facing Cotto, Margarito is guaranteed $1.5 million. He and his wife now live a comfortable life. But his one regret is that his affluence comes at a time when his brother is no longer able to enjoy his success.

"Unfortunately, my brother, I wasn't able to help," he states. "He passed away at a time where I didn't have a lot of money. But even though I wasn't making a lot of money, what I would make, we would definitely go out and buy whatever we could. I would buy him something. But I would've liked to have bought him a house or a car because he was my best friend. He was always with me and that hurts me that I can't do that right now."

Espinoza who first came into contact with Margarito in 1995, remembers that Margarito grew up in, "Very poor conditions, struggling to make a living." But unlike many others, Margarito was able to escape the pitfalls of that environment. Yet it wasn't boxing, but rather his family, that gave him the moral grounding that would guide him.

"Although I grew up around all the bad things that were happening in Tijuana, boxing wasn't an escape for me. My parents, they brought me up, they taught me right from wrong and they showed me which direction to go," he says. "It would be boxing (that kept me out of trouble). I started boxing at such a young age that I really can't tell you if it was or if it wasn't (the reason I did well with my life). But my parents had a lot to do with this."

His parents are now divorced. At a surprise birthday party on May 3rd in Tijuana, in what was a gala presentation put together by his wife, where hundreds of his friends and family gathered to celebrate his 30th year, the only melancholy moment of the night was when he addressed the audience and brought up his mother and father. The normally good-natured and amiable man would tear up as he addressed them.

While his family gave him a solid foundation, the sport in which he has dedicated his life to has helped ease the pain of the adversity that has come his way.

"Boxing has given me what I have right now. My home, it's given me fame, it's given me money, it's given me a beautiful life with my wife," Margarito says. "In regards to boxing, I've given it 100-percent. The day my father took me to the gym was the day I said, 'OK, if I'm going to get something out of boxing, I have to give to boxing as well.' My father told me, 'If you're going to do it, do it 100-percent.' Because I decided to leave school, I decided to drop out of school after the 8th grade. So I knew that I had to put everything into this to get something out of it."

Fighting Cotto, to him, is a great opportunity. But don't call it pressure - he's fought before in real pressure situations.

"I'm aware of the magnitude of the fight, I'm aware that this fight is very, very big. I'm not nervous. Anxious I am. I'm anxious for the day to come, I'm anxious to show the world who Antonio Margarito is. I'm anxious to get in the ring. But nervous, I'm not."

SOUL MATES

You know you're getting close to a Margarito fight when you see his wife, Michelle, at the gym. Usually, she stays back in Tijuana during the early parts of her husband’s training camp before coming across the border as the actual fight draws near.

They have been married since 1999 but have known each other since they were classmates in elementary school. Michelle says that they have been an item since the end of their fourth grade year and amazingly enough, with no breakups.

She admits she couldn't have imagined they'd still be together.

"No, not at all," she said through Diaz last Friday afternoon. "Antonio always said that I was his soul mate and we were going to get married. I thought he was crazy, it never crossed my mind."

In the beginning, Margarito's interest was a one-way street.

“It wasn't disinterest," she claims, "but I always saw Tony as a friend. I was afraid if we got into a relationship, it would ruin it."

But after a one-week trial run, she was sold.

"I liked that he was a respectful person. I saw a lot of qualities I was attracted to."

As his fame has grown, Michelle says that her husband is still the average Jose she met long ago.

“The only change is the change in our lifestyle. We suffered a lot to get here. But that's the only change. He's still the same person. In Tijuana they still see him as another person. He doesn't need ten bodyguards around him," she says.

As for the fight with Cotto, she's not nervous - yet.

“There are no nerves right now. I can't say I'm not thinking about the fight, but I'm confident in Antonio's conditioning and style. The nerves come as we get closer to the fight. I understand it's a big fight but I know I have to be a strong for Antonio."

OPTIONS?

I know some folks are having a big problem with the October 18th bout between Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins, and I can understand why. It's not the best style matchup out there (after all 'The Executioner' is involved) and it's a fight that will be on pay-per-view (and nobody has spoken up about that issue more than this reporter).

But the question is, just who was out there for Pavlik at this moment? To once again paraphrase Rick Pitino: Bennie Briscoe, Cyclone Hart, Gene Fullmer and Julian Jackson are not walking through that door right now. Truth is, the middleweight division is shallower than a kiddie pool currently. And the bottom line is, the Pavlik camp tried to get Joe Calzaghe to no avail, and proposed bouts against Joe Greene, Marco Antonio Rubio and John Duddy would've been excoriated by the press and fans. Felix Sturm simply isn't coming out of Germany. The Paul Willams fight was a no-win situation for him, and in Hopkins they are actually moving up 10 pounds to face a fighter who can be excruciating to watch nowadays but still did more than enough to many ringside observers to outpoint Calzaghe in April and is still listed in some pound-for-pound rankings (such as Ring Magazine). (Now for the record, I had Calzaghe winning that bout and I don't think he should be included in the pound-for-pound discussions anymore, but that's just my personal opinion.)

Nobody is saying this is a great fight (Pavlik's promoter Bob Arum and his manager Cameron Dunkin) have admitted as much. They've even been adamant in stating this wasn't anywhere near their first choice. But who else was there at this particular time?

So again, the question is this - who should they have tabbed to face Pavlik next? And you can't say IBF titlist Arthur Abraham, who not only has a mandatory due, but his output deal with German television wouldn't allow that fight to happen immediately on American soil.

PAUL'S PLAN?

OK, after turning down a career payday of over $1 million to face Pavlik on September 27th, what is the plan for Paul Williams?

There is a plan, right?

And I hope it's not to call out the winner of Cotto-Margarito because the bottom line is I don't think Arum wants to do any business at this point with Dan Goossen and Al Haymon after what he just went through.

FINAL FLURRIES

Let's keep our fingers crossed, but it looks like Oscar Diaz is going to pull through....Can Top Rank and Golden Boy at least put together a good undercard for October 18th for their pay-per-view telecast? I hear Juan Manuel Lopez will be a part of that show....Well, at least Mosley-Mayorga is no longer a pay-per-view show, right?.....Word is that Winky Wright has been given an HBO date for January of 2009 for whatever reason....It looks like Larry Merchant will not be calling the Margarito-Cotto fight, which to me, is a bit of a buzzkill. With a fight of this magnitude on HBO, Merchant should be on the frontline calling the action. Nothing against Max Kellerman, who is growing into his role nicely, but after all these years of service, it looks like the full-blown transitioning is taking place, which is the network’s prerogative. But can't they at least give Merchant the respect he deserves and let him cover the fights he wants to in what could be his last days at the network? I hope I'm wrong on this issue, but I don't think I am....

For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com

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