Superstar Manny Pacquiao and three-time world champion Antonio Margarito pose during a press conference in New York for their national press tour Wednesday. Pacquiao and Margarito will do battle, November 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. This telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Superstar Manny Pacquiao and three-time world champion Antonio Margarito pose during the press conference to kick off their national press tour with stops in New York and Dallas. Pacquiao and Margarito will do battle, November 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. This telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View.

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Superstar Manny Pacquiao arrives in Los Angeles Monday night for his big Tuesday press conference in Beverly Hills,Ca. On November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,Texas, Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View

Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Dan Rafael of espn.com reported that disgraced former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito received a boxing License in Texas and a proposed fight with Manny Pacquiao will now go forward on November 13th at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX.

“After a thorough review of his application it was determined Mr. Margarito met the requirements of the Texas Combative Sports Act and Rules,” William Kuntz, the executive director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, said in a statement.

“I want to thank the state of Texas for granting me a boxing license which enables me to continue my passion for the sport of boxing in the United States,” Margarito said in a statement. “I have dedicated my life to giving the fans of the sport entertainment and excitement. On Nov. 13, this great opportunity will ultimately be fulfilled when I battle Manny Pacquiao.”

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, on vacation in France, was happy with the news.

“For me, it was like a terrible nightmare, this whole thing, and now the sun is shining,” Arum told ESPN.com. “I really believe that it will be a very competitive fight. One guy is much bigger and stronger [Margarito] and the other guy [Pacquiao] is quicker and hits with both hands. It will be a fascinating fight to watch.”

“I was never a big fan of the ABC, but they were totally honorable and very responsible in this whole situation,” Arum said. “They made us go back to California, which to me didn’t make sense. But we did it because they requested it and then they issued a letter saying any state was free to license him. I really believed that once we followed the ABC road map that we were going to be OK.”

“Based on the review of the above information I have authorized the issuance of a license to Mr. Margarito,” Kuntz said.

“I think the crowd will be much bigger and Jerry [Jones] thinks it will also,” Arum said. “The last fight was not during football season. This one is, and we have all the Dallas Cowboys assets they use during the season to help this time. We have a lot of stuff that we didn’t have for the Clottey fight. With Margarito being Hispanic, and this is North Texas, which has a huge Hispanic population, that will make this even bigger.”

Jones said: “This is a good one because we know Margarito — with our fan base, in our area — if we do the fight, then it’ll be a big draw.”

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that disgraced former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito applied for a boxing license in Texas just after he was denied a license in California.

“We have received a faxed application on behalf of Margarito,” Said Susan Stanford who is the public information officer for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. “But a faxed application is an incomplete application.”

Apparently Maragrito did not include the $20 fee for the application.

“We understand there is a hard-copy application with a check in the mail,” she said.

Margarito needs a license in Texas so Top Rank promoter Bob Arum can move forward with his plans for Margarito to face Manny Pacquiao for a vacant junior middleweight title on Nov. 13 on HBO PPV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, site of Pacquiao’s dominant decision against Joshua Clottey on March 13.

The ABC issued a memo on Thursday reiterating to state commissions that Margarito had fulfilled his obligations.

“At this time Mr. Margarito has fulfilled his obligations per the ABC [which was to appear before the CSAC before applying for licensure to another state/tribal commission in the United States] and thus he is now free to pursue licensure with any ABC member commission,” the ABC’s statement read. “There is nothing under the federal law that would prohibit consideration for licensure. The ABC would hope that each ABC member commission would examine the facts that have been laid out by the CSAC and weigh those facts in determining if Mr. Margarito should indeed be licensed to compete in their jurisdiction.”

Stanford said once Margarito’s $20 check arrives, his application will be considered like any other fighter’s.

“We have licensing specialists that review it and all state laws and rules are considered,” she said. “If it meets the laws and rules, the license will be granted. But every application is taken on a case by case basis, and Margarito’s will be no different.”

“We don’t require a hearing,” she said. “We either grant it or deny. If it’s denied, the applicant has a right to a hearing if he asks for it.”

She said once full application requirements are with her department, the application would be ruled on “within 10 days.”

It was a show trial. Antonio Margarito had to show up in a procedural step that fulfilled, if not satisfied, bureaucratic protocol. The result was almost an after-thought. Margarito had no chance in California Wednesday. It’s a good thing he wasn’t applying for a driver’s license.

The California State Athletic Commission’s predictable denial of Margarito’s application for reinstatement of a boxing license might prove to be more significant for what he said instead of the one-sided, 5-1 decision against him.

In finally saying he didn’t know but should have known about irregular hand wraps before his loss in January, 2009 to Shane Mosley at Los Angeles Staples Center, Margarito accepted some responsibility, which figures to be the centerpiece of Top Rank’s attempt to get him licensed in Texas for a proposed bout on Nov. 13 with Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium in the Dallas metroplex.

“I am here to make an apology not only to the commission, but to the entire world for not knowing what was in those wrappings,” said Margarito, who for months refused to apologize for wraps loaded with inserts applied by former trainer Javier Capitello.

There is plenty of debate about what and when Margarito did or didn’t know. There is also no evidence. There’s only reasonable doubt. On that one, Margarito, a first-time offender, deserves benefit of the doubt, which by the way was granted to Mosley after his reported use of performance-enhancers as a BALCO customer before his rematch victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2003.

His chances at reinstatement of a license revoked on Feb. 11, 2009 had been trampled beyond repair by talk seven, eight months ago that he would attempt to get licensed in Texas for a bout on the undercard of Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium. Then, there were a couple of appearances before the Nevada Commission, which told Margarito to first go to California.

To the California commission, it looked as if he were executing an end-around in an attempted evasion of accountability. Margarito said the right things Wednesday, but the state’s regulators were going to make him pay anyway for trying to sidestep them. Hence, they slapped him with a denial that in at least one aspect was ridiculous. To wit:

According to state attorney Karen Chappelle, Margarito had illegally trained at Robert Garcia’s gym in Oxnard, Calif., for a victory on May 8 in Mexico. Margarito sparred without a California-issued permit mandatory for all boxers training in the state. Margarito said he didn’t know about that one, either. Other than lawyers and regulators, I’m not sure anybody else did mostly because it’s a rule seldom, if ever, enforced in any state without funding needed to enforce commission rules. To use that one as another reason for a Margarito denial is little bit like withholding a driver’s license because of jaywalking.

In Texas, however, Margarito will be one more step down protocol’s path and another step toward accepting accountability, which has been demanded repeatedly by media and fans in the court of public opinion. It’s an opinion that matters, perhaps more than any other. That was evident in questions and comments from commissioners at Wednesday’s hearing. Despite criticism of Margarito, even Chappelle seemed to like what she heard from the former welterweight champion.

“I think that Mr. Margarito came across as very sincere, which should do him well in the future,’’ Chappelle told Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The future looks a lot like Texas.

Gesta’s rise continues at Tucson’s Casino Del Sol

Lightweight Mercito Gesta (18-0-1, 8 KOs), called one of the best Filipino prospects by Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, figures to continue on an apparent arc to stardom tonight in Tucson at Casino Del Sol on TeleFurtura card against Mexican Genaro Trazancos (22-11-1, 13 KOs).

The 22-year-old Gesta hopes for a shot at interim World Boxing Organization champion Michael Katsidis, possibly next year. Against Trazancos, the Filipino lefthander has a chance to look very good. The 35-year-old Mexican has lost six of his last seven.

The Don Chargin-promoted card was scheduled for seven fights. A super-bantamweight bout featuring unbeaten Michael Franco (16-0, 11 KOs) of Riverside, Calif., versus Mexican Adolfo Landeros (20-14-1, 9 KOs) was canceled, because of an eye injury to Franco, a Riverside, Calif., prospect who is suffering from a torn retina. First bell is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (Arizona time).

Notes, anecdotes
· According to news reports of Wednesday’ hearing in California, attorney Daniel Petrocelli told the commission that Garcia will tape Margarito’s hands in the presence of the fighter “so that Antonio can personally oversee the procedure for himself.” Huh? It would be difficult, if not very painful, for Margarito to be anywhere but present.

· And De La Hoya capitalized on the Margarito denial to lobby for a third Juan Manuel Marquez-Pacquiao fight. It makes sense. Since Pacquiao’s rise to the top of the pound-for-pound debate, nobody has tested Pacquiao more than Marquez. Marquez might be the one fighter who can beat the Filipino Congressman. For the best, there’s always somebody, which is probably the reason Pacquiao won’t agree to a third fight with Marquez any time soon.

Former Welterweight world champion, Antonio Margarito was denied a boxing license in California by a vote of 5-1.

Margarito claimed he was unaware that he had was turned out to be a plaster like substance in his glove while being taped up for his January, 2009 bout with Shane Mosley in Los Angeles.

The commissioners cited lack of remorse on Margarito’s part as one of the key reasons for denying the former champ the license.

Maragrito did fight in his native Mexico as he scored a unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia on May 8th.

There have been reports that Margarito will fight Manny Pacquiao in Texas on November 13th with Texas willing to give the disgraced fighter an opportunity to fight in their state.

The Friday before last, Team Mayweather handed Bob Arum and Top Rank a bunch of lemons. Instead of trying to make lemonade, Arum passed the lemons off to boxing fans in the form of Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito.

Now it’s up to the boxing community to determine what to do with them.

During his now-infamous conference call, Arum made it clear that his intentions were to pursue fights with possible opponents other than Mayweather, specifically Miguel Cotto or Margarito.

Less than two weeks later the “Tijuana Tornado” emerged as the next opponent for the Filipino Congressman.

In fighting Pacquiao (51-3, 38 KO) on November 13, Margarito (38-6, 27 KO) is receiving a “hand-wrapped” gift from Arum and Top Rank. In taking care of his own, Arum is granting Margarito what will most likely amount to the biggest pay day of his career. He is awarding “Tony” the chance of a lifetime simply for fighting under the Top Rank banner.

During his conference call, responding to an inquiry about a potential Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight, Arum immediately dismissed the possibility.

“Tim Bradley is a tremendous fighter and he’s a great young man,” Arum said. “But the problem with a guy like Tim Bradley is that even though you and I know what a superb fighter he is, the public really doesn’t know.”

He continued, “The other promoters don’t really promote their fighters. They take money from HBO or Showtime or a little Indian casino and they think they’re doing the kid a big service. I’m not going to give them a free ride on the work we have done.”

That same logic applied to a question about a potential Paul Williams fight with Pacquiao.

“Paul Williams is a tremendous fighter – a great fighter, but he hasn’t been promoted correctly — he doesn’t have any following, can’t sell any tickets,” Arum said. “Nobody is financing the pay-per-view fight. On an HBO fight – HBO pays the money. I’m the one that’s financing the pay-per-view and don’t want to give anyone a free ride.”

Arum’s thinking, which in this specific case is reasonable, has ultimately left us with a mid-Autumn clash between Pacquiao and Margarito. It has also left us disappointed with the realization that a Mayweather-Pacquiao superfight won’t be taking place any time this calendar year.

It’s left us with a decision about what to do with these lemons.

It’s true that Margarito, or as many in the fistic community have comically renamed him, “Margacheato”, was caught with loaded hand-wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

It’s also true that he doesn’t deserve the big pay day that will come when he faces the world’s number one pound-for-pound boxer.

Margarito is a cheater who was caught and is still being punished. He is a fighter who, presumably, was willing to endanger the lives of his opponents for a win inside the ring.

He is still not licensed to prizefight in the United States ] and the last time most boxing fans saw him, he was being battered around the ring for nine rounds by Mosley.

So what are we to make of Pacquiao-Margarito?

Lemonade?

Let me try.

Margarito is a battle tested warrior. Having suffered early defeats in his career, Margarito had to work twice as hard to prove the crooked numbers in the loss column were due to the fact that he turned professional at the ripe young age of 15, not necessarily due to lack of skill.

After years of compiling win after win, Margarito fought his way to the top. He has held, at some point or another, the WBA, WBO, and IBF welterweight championships.

He walks through the best punches his opponents have to offer just so he can fire off a few of his own.

This past decade alone, Margarito has stopped Sergio Martinez, Antonio Diaz, and twice stopped Kermit Cintron.

He was awarded a decision over Joshua Clottey. He has battled in tough losses against Paul Williams and Daniel Santos, proving that even in defeat, he still possesses the heart of a true Mexican warrior.

He has fought in fights that looked like they belonged in bars, specifically the hellacious brawl with Miguel Cotto — a fight that left Cotto’s face almost unrecognizable.

Truth be told, plaster-wraps aside, Margarito is an entertaining fighter to watch.

To add to the fan-friendly style of Margarito is the always-entertaining Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao, the seven division world champion and current WBO welterweight champion, is the world’s number one pound-for-pound fighter and arguably the most entertaining boxer on the globe.

Pacquiao’s “Energizer Bunny” style is enough to draw most boxing fans’ interest. In recent years, Pacquiao’s domination of opponents has tended to end fights in spectacular fashion — such as the Ricky Hatton knockout, Cotto stoppage, and David Diaz knockout.

But even in fights where the endings weren’t as exciting, Pacquiao is still a pleasure to watch.

Take the Clottey fight, for instance. It was a fight that was dominated by Pacquiao from the opening bell, a fight in which Clottey suffered a slow, twelve round death. In a unanimous decision win, where two judges somehow awarded Clottey a single round, Pacquiao still made the fight entertaining. Pacquiao’s tireless work-rate was something to marvel at. He averaged over 100 purposeful punches a round throughout the twelve round bout and finished the fight looking like the he could fight twelve more.

Any time the best fighter in the world is fighting, I am going to be watching. It’s as simple as that.

The number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world versus a Mexican warrior, who can take an inordinate amount of punishment, but always seems to dish out just more than he receives. This has all the makings to be an intriguing fight.

End of squeezing lemons.

Do I buy into the hype I just tried to create in an attempt to excite myself?

I’m not so sure.

But at least I was trying to make lemonade. With the immediate dismissal of a potential Bradley or Williams fight with Pacquiao, that’s more than Arum and Top Rank can say. They simply handed off the lemons to boxing fans to let us decide what to make of them.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, disgraced former Welterweight champion Antonio Margarito was told by the Nevada Athletic Commission that he first my be granted a boxing License in the State of California before they would consider a license in it’s state.

The California State Athletic Commission revoked Margarito’s license following his Jan. 24, 2009 ninth-round knockout loss to Shane Mosley in a welterweight championship fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles over a hand-wrapping scandal that erupted in the dressing room in the moments before he was supposed to walk to the ring.

“If I would have noticed there was something irregular or wrong I would have been the first person to say I can’t go out and fight,” Margarito said through a translator.

“I think he needs to go to California and clean this matter up,” commissioner Raymond “Skip” Avansino said during the hearing. “They should be the first to rule.”

Commission chairwoman Pat Lundvall, the lone dissenting vote, argued strongly on Margarito’s behalf both for taking a vote and for licensing him.

“I do not think he has a duty legally or morally to go back to California,” she said. “It is incumbent upon this commission to act upon the application. … There is no value in kicking the can down the road.”

“We were hopeful that the commission would rule on the application after hearing our presentation and hearing Antonio answer all of their questions. He did and he did magnificently,” David Marroso, Margarito’s attorney, told ESPN.com after the hearing. “We’re disappointed in their decision to, using their words, kick the can down the road, but we heard their instructions. Antonio, his family, the lawyers and Top Rank will huddle and decide what options we’ll pursue.

“We believe he has paid his price. He’s taken responsibility. We will assess our options and keep fighting just like he’s always done. We will continue to fight. He didn’t become Antonio Margarito by just staying down.”

“I understand their position, but don’t necessarily agree with it,” said Top Rank president Todd duBoef, who was at the hearing while Top Rank chairman Bob Arum was in Puerto Rico promoting Saturday’s Juan Manuel Lopez-Bernabe Concepcion featherweight title fight. “He has served his punishment in California and is not looking to fight in California, so why apply there for a license?

“The Margarito side doesn’t believe the California commission was objective [when the license was revoked] and that they could not get an objective hearing from California now. They were hoping that Nevada would be more objective and see that a commission that Margarito is currently in litigation with would be compromised.”

“Before the fight, my trainer Javier Capetillo, my former trainer, put a knuckle pad made of gauze on my hand,” Margarito said through a translator. “I learned later the knuckle pad had something irregular on the inside but I didn’t know that truthfully in the moment. The knuckle pad didn’t seem different to ones he had put on my hands before.

“I never felt anything hard or irregular. Everything I felt was that it was a knuckle pad that was normal. In that moment, I was focused on one thing and that was preparing myself to go out to the fight with Mosley.”

“I thought about it and talked to my family and decided not to fight,” Margarito said.

“I accept responsibility because they are my hands and that is why I have taken steps to make sure this never happens again.”

“We could take the commission’s instructions and proceed to California,” Said Marroso. “This is not something we expected so it’s not something we had thought through. We’ll let Antonio digest this. We’re going to digest it and huddle and come up with a game plan. It won’t be long until the game plan is set and we act on it.”

Margarito, 32, could go to California, he could fight again outside the United States or he could apply in another state.

“I think everybody was disappointed,” Said Todd duBoef of Top Rank, which promotes Maragito. “I think he’s being victimized by red tape and a process prohibiting him from making a living. I sat next to his wife and you know she wonders where the next paycheck is coming from and that’s very difficult.”

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

By now, Antonio Margarito knows the questions like he knows an old sparring partner. He has heard them from the California State Athletic Commission. They have been thrown at him from all angles in the court of public opinion. He has heard them in whispers, shouts and legalese.

If his appearance Friday in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission were a fight, Margarito should be ready. If he isn’t, he never will be in an attempt to regain a license in the United States about 18 months after his gloves were found to be loaded and potentially lethal before a loss to Shane Mosley in January, 2009.

His fate rests not so much in what he says, but in how he says it. It’s a subtle adjustment, more about tone than substance. So far, however, Margarito has either been unable or unwilling to assume some accountability for inserts in hand wraps applied by his former trainer, Javier Capetillo.

Since he began to talk to fans and the media a few months ago, Margarito has repeatedly, almost defiantly, said he had no idea what was in those wraps. He has always assigned the blame to Capetillo. The wraps belonged to Capetillo, Margarito said. But the hands have always belonged to Margarito, which is another way of saying he can never completely separate himself from what happened.

Here’s what he can do: He can continue to say he never knew what was in the wraps, but he can include an addendum, an apology for not knowing. For those adamantly opposed to Margarito ever fighting in the U.S. again, that won’t be enough. That opposition will always be there.

But a willingness to acknowledge his own accountability represents an important step that could win over skeptics, who have yet to hear any remorse in Margarito’s explanations.

There are plenty of other hurdles for the former welterweight champion, who has been free to apply for a license in any state since Feb. 11. There is protocol. California has yet to rule on an appeal of his license revocation at a hearing a few weeks after the altered wraps were discovered at Los Angeles Staples Center.

When there were Top Rank plans for Margarito to seek a license in Texas for a bout in March on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey card in Dallas, the U.S. Association of Boxing Commissions urged that the revocation continue. Top Rank never pursued the license. Instead, Margarito fought in Mexico, winning on May 8 in his only bout since the California revocation.

Margarito is back, this time in Nevada, because he looms as a possibility for Pacquiao on Nov. 13 if Floyd Mayweather, Jr., says no next week. If Pacquiao-Mayweather is a go, then a Margarito rematch with Miguel Cotto, perhaps in December, is on Top Rank’s agenda.

There has long been speculation that Margarito’s hand wraps were altered in similar fashion for his stunning, brutal upset of the previously unbeaten Cotto in Las Vegas during the summer of 2008. There is lingering confusion about Margarito’s beat-down of Cotto at the MGM Grand.

Speculation about Margarito’s hand wraps on that night has been fueled in part by a Cotto comment. In a conference call, Cotto said nobody from his corner was in Margarito’s dressing room to watch how Capetillo wrapped his hands. However, Cotto’s assertion has been disputed in various news reports by officials and inspectors assigned by the Nevada Commission. Margarito’s management team also has told 15 rounds that somebody from Cotto’s corner was in fact in Margarito’s dressing room.

Still, suspicion about what was in Margarito’s hands for Cotto will never vanish. If Margarito didn’t know before Mosley, he can’t say he knew before, during or after Cotto.

But he can say he should have known.

That decision has always been in his hands.

NOTES, QUOTES
· Robert Guerrero said his wife’s cancer is in remission. Casey has been battling leukemia. “My wife is doing great,’’ Guerrero said Thursday in a conference call that included Joel Casamayor, his opponent for a junior-welterweight bout July 31 on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II card at Las Vegas Mandalay Bay. “She’s doing so great. That’s why I’m taking big fights and getting back into the ring.”

· Casamayor is 38 and confident as ever. “Losing is not an option,’’ Casamayor, the former lightweight champion, said. “Retirement is not an option.’’ Casamayor said he wants a rematch with Marquez, who stopped him in the 11th round in 2008.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com disgraced former Welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito will appear before the Nevada Athletic Commission in effort of regaining his boxing license in that state.

“We have him on last because that will be the longest part of the meeting,” commission executive director Keith Kizer told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

“He’s going to have to answer some tough question here,” Kizer said. “He has to be here in person. It’s a heavy burden for him to satisfy, but it’s his burden to meet. He’ll have to explain anything the commissioners want to ask him about. I assume the commissioners will ask him a lot of questions. Some may be easy, some may be hard, but the burden is solely his.”

However, in the minutes before his fight with Shane Mosley on January 24, 2009 in Los Angeles, drama had unfolded in Margarito’s dressing room. It was there that Mosley trainer Naazim Richardson objected to the way Margarito’s left hand had been wrapped.

California officials eventually cut off the wrap to check it and discovered an illegal pad coated in a plaster-like substance, which had obviously escaped the notice of the commission inspector who oversaw the wrapping procedure. When the wrap on Margarito’s right hand was also cut off for examination, an identical illegal pad was also discovered.

Margarito’s hands we re-wrapped and he went on to lose the fight. Three weeks later, Margarito’s claim of ignorance at a hearing was rejected by the California State Athletic Commission and he had his license revoked in a 7-0 vote, as did trainer Javier Capetillo.

“I really believe he should get his license in Nevada,” Said Bob Arum, who promotes Maragrito. “He and his attorney will present the reasons and the Nevada commission will decide. We went to Nevada because that’s where we are planning for him to fight. If it’s not against Pacquiao in November, it would be against Cotto in December.

“I’m optimistic the Nevada commission will do the right thing, but I haven’t talked to anyone on the commission, not one person, and neither has [Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef].” Arum said they are approaching the Nevada commission now so they don’t have to rush like they had in Texas earlier this year.

“If Floyd elects not to step up to the plate and fight Pacquiao and Pacquiao elects to fight Margarito, if that happens, we need to make sure Margarito has a license,” Arum said. “You can’t go to Pacquiao and see if he will fight Margarito if the guy doesn’t even have a license. So we are doing this now instead of rushing around at the last minute.”

“This is not that different from other situations where people had things in their past that the commission wanted to ask them about before deciding about a license,” Kizer said. “We did it with people like Mike Tyson, Zab Judah and Roger Mayweather, who had all been disciplined in Nevada. Margarito’s situation was in California, but we have the same rules as they do. Margarito was revoked, and after a year you are free to apply anywhere. He sat out for [more than] a year, and now he can reapply.”

“They have full discretion and jurisdiction,” he said. “I know there will be a lot of people on both sides. If they do grant him a license, there will be a lot of people yelling, ‘They’re crazy for giving him a license.’ And if they don’t, there will be a lot of people yelling, ‘They’re crazy for not giving him a license.’ They’ll be criticized either way, so they don’t have to worry about it. The five commissioners will listen to what he has to say and make the decision.”

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Attorney Daniel Pertocelli dismissed reports that Antonio Margarito’s gloves were loaded with a rock-like substance before he was ordered to re-wrap his hands before a loss to Shane Mosley more than a year ago in Los Angeles.

“Completely false,’’ Petrocelli said Monday in a conference call that included Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who is promoting Margarito’s return to the ring in Mexico on May 8.

Arum said he scheduled the conference call in an attempt to correct conclusions that he says were based on “misinformation” about circumstances that led to a one-year revocation of Margarito’s license by the California State Athletic Commission.

Margarito, who has been free to re-apply for a license in the United States since February, is scheduled to appear at a news conference Tuesday at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Petrocelli said an “irregularity” was discovered in the gauze above one knuckle in the wraps when Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson asked for a closer look before opening bell of a welterweight fight on Jan 24 at Staples Center. The California commission conducted a forensic test of the wraps, said Petrocelli, who said he was not allowed to have different experts conduct a second test.

The California test turned up traces of calcium and sulfur, according to Petrocelli, who said both substances can be found in hand creams.

Pertocelli also dismissed talk that Margarito used similar wraps in the summer of 2008 in an upset of Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. He called the speculation a “myth.”

California and Nevada rules are different, said Petrocelli, who won a wrongful death judgment in 1997 against O.J. Simpson in civil court. In California, trainers are allowed to bring their own wraps. Nevada provides the wraps. Javier Capitello, Margarito’s trainer for Mosley, also had his license revoked for 12 months. Robert Garcia of Oxnard, Calif., is Margarito’s current trainer.

Margarito has said consistently that he did not know Capetillo had wrapped his hands illegally. In an interview with 15 Rounds on March 11 in a lobby of a Dallas-area hotel before Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium; Margarito said; “I did nothing wrong.’’

Petrocelli said he is trying to clear Margarito’s name with an appeal in the California courts. He expects a ruling sometime this year. Meanwhile, Arum plans to apply for license in the U.S. after Margarito’s May 8 bout against Roberto Garcia in Aguascalientes.

“His next fight will be in the United States,’’ said Arum, who was unable to get Margarito licensed in Texas in time for him to fight on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, disgraced former welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito will make his return to the ring in Mexico on May 8th against Roberto Garcia.

Maragrito still has not been licensed in the United States following being caught with a Plaster of Paris like substance in his handwraps just before being stopped by Shane Mosley last January in Los Angeles.

“He’ll fight at junior middleweight and then, depending on who he will fight in his next fight, he might get back down to welterweight,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. “Margarito really wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and that would be at welterweight. If the Pacquiao fight isn’t there, he might face the winner of the [June 5] fight between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto.”

Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank

GRAPEVINE, Tex. – Antonio Margarito had hoped to fight Saturday night in Texas. He won’t. But he did show up Thursday night at the official hotel for the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight Saturday night and talked about his comeback in Mexico, his hopes for a fight in the United States and said again that he never knew his ex-trainer tried to load his gloves with a plaster-like substance before a loss to Shane Mosley.

“It was not my fault,’’ Margarito told 15 Rounds in a crowded lobby at the Gaylord Texan when asked about the glove controversy. “It is something my trainer did wrong.’’

Margarito’s license in California was revoked after his former trainer, Javier Capetillo, told the California State Athletic Commission that he inadvertently placed pieces of a plaster-like substance in his hand wraps. The substance was found when Mosley trainer Nazim Richardson asked Capetillo to re-wrap the hands before a bout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in January, 2008.

Margarito’s license was revoked for a year. He was able to re-apply on Feb. 11. Promoter Bob Arum had planned for him to fight on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard. Arum said there wasn’t enough time to complete the process. Margarito can apply anywhere, but there has been public pressure for him to first re-apply in California.

“I’m letting my attorneys handle that,’’ the Spanish-speaking Margarito said through an interpreter.

Meanwhile, Margarito, who has reunited with trainer Robert Garcia, said there is nothing he can do about public suspicions that he had to know his gloves were loaded.

“I can only go into the ring,’’ he said. “Only in the ring. That’s where the truth is.’’

Margarito said he is planning to be at Cowboys Stadium Saturday night because he hopes to fight Pacquiao, a heavy favorite over Clottey. There already is speculation that Arum will make a Pacquiao-Margarito fight if another round of talks for Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. unravel a second time.

Margarito, who said he been training in Tijuana for a May 8 comeback in Mexico against Carson Jones, also said he would agree to a rematch with Miguel Cotto, whom he beat badly in July, 2008 in Las Vegas.

“Just name the time and the place,’’ he said. “Anytime, anywhere.’’

Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank

Anybody seen Antonio Margarito lately? Anybody heard from him? There have been more Tiger Woods sightings during the last three months than there have been of Margarito in more than a year. Margarito has vanished, almost as if he’s in hiding.

In the court of public opinion, it’s a bad idea, especially if he ever hopes to be licensed in the United States again. Fair or not, there is talk he is hiding because there is something to hide.
Out of sight, but not of mind.

Questions continue about why, not whether, his gloves were loaded 13 months ago before a loss to Shane Mosley in Los Angeles. Some people want him to apologize. I just want to hear an explanation, straight and unvarnished, from Margarito. He needs attorney Daniel Petrocelli for the legalese required in appearances before the California State Athletic Commission or the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation or some other bureaucracy.

But legal arguments won’t erase deep-seated skepticism about his claim that he had no idea disgraced ex-trainer Javier Capitello put some plaster-like substance into wraps that would turn gloves into weapons of mass destruction. Nobody who has ever worn gloves believes that one. Nobody who has ever worn shoes believes it either. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If there’s a rock in your shoe, you know it.

I have no idea how Margarito would answer the questions. Until he does, however, it’s impossible for me to say that he should be re-licensed. If he can’t stand up and argue for himself, how can anybody argue for him?

He didn’t fight anywhere for a year. That was the idea when California revoked his license on Feb. 10, 2009. He did what he had to. He did the time. But the process is incomplete without an explanation that may – or may not – serve as the final punctuation in this ongoing controversy.

Top Rank’s plans for him to fight on the March 13 card featuring Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas were dropped because of pressure on Texas not to grant him a license. It just wasn’t going to happen.

His Texas application is still pending, but it doesn’t figure to go anywhere until he first re-applies in California. Even if he does that, there will be controversy that only he can address. If – as tentatively planned — Margarito fights on May 8 in Mexico, it would only be a further complication. Regulators in California or Nevada or Texas or Arizona probably would see the move as another way to duck the questions. He’s being doing a lot of that.

During the week before Pacquiao’s victory in November over Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas, he was scheduled to make an appearance at a nearby shopping mall. I and couple of other sportswriters jumped into a car and rushed out to meet him. He had been there. But by the time we arrived, he had vanished, which is what will happen to Margarito’s career if he doesn’t show up and practice some accountability.

Between Cotto’s victory over Clottey in June and his loss to Pacquiao, there had been a lot of talk about a Cotto-Margarito rematch. To this day, nobody knows whether Margarito’s gloves were similarly armed, locked and loaded in his stunning beat-down of Cotto.

But talk of a rematch, like Margarito, has vanished. Cotto told the English-speaking press that he would be interested in rematch. Then, he was quoted in the Spanish-speaking press as saying there was no way he would help Margarito make money.

Let’s just say that Cotto has his own suspicions.

Until we hear from Margarito, that’s all anybody has.

NOTES, QUOTES
· High school senior Jose Benavidez, a junior-welterweight from Phoenix, continued to impress by scoring two knockdowns in first-round stoppage of John Michael Vega Saturday night on the undercard of super-flyweight Nonito Donaire’s third-round KO of Manuel Vargas at the Las Vegas Hilton. Benavidez’ next fight is scheduled for the Pacquiao-Clottey weekend. He could appear on the undercard at Cowboys Stadium. But the place probably would be empty for bout early on the card. Instead, Benavidez (2-0, 2 KOs), who has Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach in his corner, might fight on a Dallas card Friday night in smaller room where people would see him. And remember him.
· Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, has added some boxing drills to his training regimen. He’s not the first. Swimmer Gary Hall Jr., a 10-time medalist over three Olympics, put on gloves and hit the heavy bags for years. Hall, who taught heavyweight Earnie Shavers’ kids how to swim, was a fight fan. Hall, a sprinter, said the regimen helped strengthen his muscles and improved his reaction time off the starting blocks.