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 Margarito - Santos III a No-Go; Team Margarito Looks Toward Cintron
Photo and story by German Villasenor
(October 27, 2004)
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WBO world welterweight kingpin Antonio ''Tony'' Margarito will not be fighting his old nemesis, WBO 154-pound champion Daniel Santos, anytime soon, if ever.
Team Margarito has decided not to pursue a third fight vs the Puerto Rican southpaw, with whom Margarito has ended up with two nasty cuts (the only times he has ever been cut in a fight) above his right eye. The last injury came in Margarito's last outing vs Santos for the Puerto Rican's WBO 154-pound title.
Margarito ended up with the first loss on his record in eight years, losing a close decision.
Papers had been filed to protest the decision at the next WBO Convention, which takes place at the end of this month; a decision that many at ringside believed Margarito should have won.
''The best they can do is give us a straight rematch vs Santos,'' said Margarito’s manager Sergio Diaz. ''We don't really need Santos; they need us. We should have been given the decision last time out, and seeing how their styles just don't mesh-up, we don't see an upside of going for a third fight against him.''
''When Margarito fought Santos in the rematch, he (Santos) was already a light heavyweight, and he still nearly dropped Santos a couple of times. That should have been more than enough for Tony to win.''
''We were looking more along the lines of reversing the decision, or getting a draw on the record at worst. That could have spring boarded us to a showdown vs another of the 154 champions (the undisputed world super welterweight champion Winky Wright, or IBF champion Kassim Ouma)," Diaz stated.
''We decided to remain at welterweight for the time being and defend the title vs the interim champion Kermit Cintron," continued Diaz. "If everything comes out all right, our objective goes back to what it originally was a year ago, to unify the titles at 147 vs Cory Spinks.''
That could be troublesome at best, since Don King has a stranglehold on the St. Louis native, and without the bout being a mandatory, the flamboyant promoter will always go straight for endless options on Margarito to make the fight happen. Of course, if enough money is involved (HBO still thinks highly of the Mexican fighter) that fight has a chance of being made.
''Another option would be to unify vs Jose ''El Gallo'' Rivera (who holds the ''regular'' WBA 147-pound belt)," said Diaz. "Rivera has called us out in the past, so we could work towards a match-up between our fighters. There's no date or venue set for the Cintron defense, but when it is, we will definitely be ready for it.''
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