Less than an hour before the fight, during the wrapping of Margarito’s hands, Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson, who was observing, as is customary in boxing, asked to feel the knuckle pad that was about to be applied to Margarito’s left hand. What was discovered was a wet piece of old, flattened gauze. Tests conducted by the California Department of Justice determined that the material smeared on the pads contained two elements; sulfur and calcium, which when combined with oxygen make Plaster of Paris.
A huge argument ensued and Margarito, looking to clear his name, held up his already wrapped right hand and insisted that Richardson and the California State Athletic Commission inspectors present check his right hand. What they found was a similar hidden gauze pad.
After the wraps were confiscated and Margarito’s hands were rewrapped, he was sent out to fight Mosley in the biggest fight of his career, in front of the largest gathering of his fans and had the worst night of his professional career.
“I was just worried about the time,” said Margarito. “I was going to fight next, they told me. I should be ready. But everybody kept arguing and going back and forth. All I wanted was to get ready to fight. It took a long time. Finally, they rewrapped my hands and everybody was happy. But I never got a chance to settle in and get ready for the fight.”
Yet still, Margarito did not blame the loss on the confusion and distraction of such a stressful moment.
“I had a bad night,” he said. “It happens in boxing sometimes. You’re not at your best. I normally don’t lose a lot of weight going into a fight. But I did this time and I suffered for it.”
In a hearing, weeks after the fight with the CSAC, Margarito’s now ex-trainer Javier Capetillo claimed that it was all a mistake and openly took the blame. His claim was the wraps were used in the gym and that he had mistakenly brought them to the fight and put them on Margarito. Capetillo openly and emotionally exonerated Margarito from any knowledge of the wraps.
But the CSAC did not buy the story and both Margarito and Capetillo had their boxing and training licenses in California, respectively, revoked, based not on what the substance was (that wouldn’t be determined until late March of 2009) but rather that a wet, foreign substance had been found in his wraps; both of those things being against the rules of any boxing commission.
In particular, Margarito lost his license because, as the commission put it, he was “the captain of his ship,” and as an employer of Capetillo, he was responsible for what his employee did. Margarito’s lawyer contends that it not the case.
"About the contracts, Capetillo wasn’t an employee of Tony,” said Daniel Petrocelli, in a recent conference call to discuss the case. “You can’t be penalized because somebody did something without your knowledge or participation, let alone something as severe as taking away your right to earn a living," said Petrocelli. "That’s just unconstitutional and that’s why I think that this decision is so unjust and that’s why I’m so hopeful that it’s going to be overturned on appeal."
Fast forward a year to Margarito regaining his eligibility to reapply for his license in the U.S. His promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, briefly flirted with the idea of putting Margarito on the March 16 Manny Pacquiao/Joshua Clottey pay-per-view. An opponent, Carson Jones is named.
On January 29, 2010, the Association of Boxing Commissions President Tim Lueckenhoff, in a letter to Texas Commission President Dickie Cole, asked that a public hearing be held for Margarito’s licensing but also let Cole know that “The ABC Board of Directors also opined that Mr. Margarito should not be licensed at this time due to the seriousness of the violations surrounding the revocation of Mr. Margarito’s license by the CSAC.”
And so Margarito was soon scrapped from the card in favor of the May 8 date in Mexico. For Arum, it was a matter of both practicality and knowing your market.
“Because [any boxing commission] have to, under the rules of the various athletic commissions, they have to have procedures of how many days and so forth,” said Arum. “Because I think most athletic commissions would require a hearing before granting him a license. It’s a practical matter. We were told that was the position in Texas.”
After the ABC decided to lean on all commissions regarding Margarito’s relicensing in the U.S., Top Rank and Team Margarito decided it would be best to take Margarito to Mexico to reintroduce him to the public on a pay-per-view show called “Latin Fury 14” to be held in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Fast forward to April 6, 2010. The Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. It is days after the conference call with Top Rank CEO Bob Arum and Petrocelli. It is here that Margarito met the press for the first time in a year to announce his comeback fight against Roberto Garcia in a junior middleweight bout.
“In Mexico, there wasn’t any problem with a hearing,” said Arum. “And also this Aguascaliente is a huge event. Where else can we get 20,000 people guaranteed sell-out for this type of card?
“You have to understand that boxing is ten times more popular in Mexico,” continued Arum. “So now we have an opportunity to do 20,000 people on a comeback fight and it makes more sense fighting a fight here than in any place in the United States.
While no date has been set for Margarito’s return to the States, Arum did say it would be in his next fight which is rumored to be against Top Rank-promoted Manny Pacquiao. However, if that fight happens, it won’t be in California.
“I think the chances are very, very good,” said Arum of the fight. “I think that would be an interesting fight based on how [Margarito] does in this fight. And obviously, if he fought Manny Pacquiao, it would be in the United States. And we would then, if that was the next fight, if, we would apply for a license in the state that the fight would take place. It couldn’t be in California for the reason that Pacquiao won’t fight in California because of the state taxes. Pacquiao will only fight in three states in the United States. Nevada, Texas, or Florida.”
For the past year, since that moment on January 24, 2009, every person who follows boxing or is in boxing has been split as to whether or not Margarito knew about the plan. For that year, Margarito has held fast to the story that he did not know what was in his gloves.
“I didn’t know anything about what happened,” Margarito would reiterate to the press at the Biltmore in what became a heated round table session. “I just put my hands up and they wrap them.”
Whether you believe him or not, whether you think a fighter would know if something was different about his hand wraps or not, whether you believe Margarito did this his whole career or this was a one-off or not, the fact remains Margarito’s story has remained consistent from the time he held up his right gloved hand for scrutiny to the present.
One thing is certain; Margarito will remain a controversial figure for some time. Whether he can redeem himself through a fight is uncertain but that is the plan.
“I just have to prove myself in the ring,” Margarito told the press.”That’s all I have to do. I know a lot of people can talk and can say whatever they feel, whatever they want. That’s fine with me. But me, personally, I have to prove it in the ring. I have to show everyone.”
One point that should be clear is that Margarito was not suspended. His license was revoked. He could reapply after the year was over. But Margarito and Top Rank seem to think that since the year is over, the penalty is over, which is not necessarily true. If it were, the ABC would not have made the request they did.
“All I know is that they told me I couldn’t fight for a year,” said Margarito. “I accepted that for a year, even though I didn’t do anything wrong. And I took the year. To me, that’s proof of responsibility. I took the year and now I’m going to fight. I could have fought the last few months or so. I didn’t. I waited a whole year and now I’m fighting.”
Arum reiterated that had they fought outside the U.S. within that time frame, it would have been clear they did not care about the CSAC ruling.
“That implication would have been so, had [Margarito] fought during the last year,” said Arum. “Now we have honored the revocation and he is eligible to fight any place he can get a license and it doesn’t necessarily have to be here in the United States, because there is no way we can get a crowd of over 20,000 any place other than Mexico.”
The fallout from the hand wrap incident has been brutal. Speculation has run rampant on the internet, in gyms, everywhere boxing is discussed. People claim Margarito had bricks in his hands or that he was in the fight with them or that he had to have had them in his wraps when he fought Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron.
“All these people who say these things, first, they don’t know me,” said Margarito. “They don’t know my history, the way I box. The way I done everything in boxing, always clean. They don’t know [what] the situation was. Nobody has a clear idea of what happened that night and I think a lot of people are going by what you say and write without knowing what happened. I am going to prove to everyone I don’t need anything to win fights.
Both Cintron and Cotto have gone on record recently and said that they believe Margarito did cheat them while another high-profile opponent, Paul Williams, said he didn’t believe it to be so but also said, which is most true: we will never know. At the end of the proverbial day, no one will ever know but Margarito and Capetillo, but everyone will wonder. Regardless if it’s right or wrong, that won’t stop fans, fighters, and experts from voicing their opinions.
“Now every opponent can say that now if they want,” said Margarito. “Even ones I fought in the amateurs.”
One reporter asked Margarito if he felt he should at least take some responsibility for what happened.
“Why should he admit to something he didn’t do?” asked Margarito’s co-manager Sergio Diaz. “Why should he take responsibility for what someone else did?”
“Everyone says that I should know, but I didn’t know,” said Margarito. “You keep telling me I should know but I don’t. I didn’t know anything. People say I went up in the ring with those things, but I didn’t. I didn’t know what was in there. I still don’t know what was in there. Nobody told me what was in there.”
So for now, Margarito moves forward against Roberto Garcia, a tough fighter now training out of the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Ca.
“I know he is very strong,” said Margarito of Garcia. He’s never been knocked out. I’m looking forward to a real tough fight.”
What Margarito has left in the tank after a year-and-a-half layoff and a tough beating at the hands of Shane Mosley remains to be seen.
“It has been hard because I haven’t been able to fight,” said Margarito of the last year. “That’s what I do. But I have been in the gym. I go to the gym as much as I can just to stay in shape. I have been in the gym actually sparring, doing stuff. I think I will be OK. I’m prepared now to come back and do my job.”
In a sense, the case remains open. Margarito’s lawyers will handle the legal end with an appeal. Top Rank will handle his comeback with the independently-produced fight card “Latin Fury 14,” and Margarito, with new trainer Robert Garcia (no relation) will take care of preparation business out in Oxnard, Ca.
What also remains is how the fans will react to him both in Mexico and here in the States, in terms of pay-per-view buys and attendance.
“I don’t think he has lost any fans,” said Arum. “And aren’t we by putting him in this fight, betting that the fans will buy the fight, right? Nobody is putting a gun to their heads. I’m not taking any money from HBO or Showtime. I’m betting on the fans supporting him.”
“The people that follow me my whole career,” said Margarito, “they know where I stand. They know what I have done. And they are going to be with me.”
Whether they are with him or not, the fact remains no one will ever know what took place before Capetillo and Margarito entered that Staples Center dressing room January 24, 2009. How you feel about it, whether you believe he did not know or should have known or any other scenario surrounding the incident will be forever up to you, the individual.
For this writer’s opinion on the situation, please email him at maxgmontoya@gmail.com
