Now this is war! Miguel Cotto will face off against Antonio Margarito on December 3, 2011 live at Madison Square Garden.
Their first bout was held in July, 2008 and sparked a storm of controversy when a year later Margarito’s corner had to re-wrap the boxer’s hands before his bout with Shane Mosley due to using a hardened plaster that is illegal.
The big question is did Antonio Margarito use a hardened illegal hand-wrap in any previous boxing matches, specifically against Cotto? Margarito and his trainer insist that answer is no, the hardened wrap was merely an accident. Since that fight Margarito has lost to Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao but defeated Robert Garcia. However, as evidenced in the episode of HBO’s 24/7, Margarito is looking as good as ever.
Cotto on the other hand has beaten Ricardo Mayorga, Yuri Foreman, Joshua Clottey and Michael Jennings but lost to Pacquiao as well.
The first fight was held at welterweight (147) this fight will be at a Jr. middleweight catch-weight of 153 pounds for the WBA Super World light middleweight title.
Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito II is one fight you won’t want to miss!
When heavyweight championship boxing was at its peak, “Smokin” Joe Frazier was right there in the mix. The former heavyweight champion from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sported one of the most feared left hooks boxing has ever seen.
Joe Frazier’s professional boxing record is 32 – 4 – 1 with 27 wins by way of knockout. Frazier’s four losses came at the hands of two other great heavyweights, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali.
Frazier’s best fight was fittingly billed as “The Fight of the Century” which was his first bout against Ali. Frazier won a 15 round decision and warned Ali in the press conference before the fight “this time you’re not fighting Oscar Bonavena, you’re not fighting Jerry Quarry, you’re fighting Joe Frazier!”
Smokin Joe Frazier highlights
Joe Frazier passed away on November 7, 2011 but the memories he gave us will not be forgotten.
When it was announced that Manny Pacquiao would be fighting Juan Manuel Marquez for the third time this November fans clinged to the hope that he would fight Floyd Mayweather next.
Mayweather is the new WBC welterweight champion after his 4th round KO of Victor Ortiz last Saturday night. The interesting x-factor in this equation is Marquez. What if he beats Pacquiao?
The first time Pacquiao and Marquez fougth it was a draw. The second time around Manny won a decision but there were many people thougth Marquez looked even better in that fight.
Marquez lost to Floyd Mayweather but that could have served as a learning experience, one that Manny Pacquiao does not have since he and Floyd have not yet met in the ring.
By and large nobody is picking Marquez to beat Pacquiao but what if it happens? Pacquiao hasn’t lost a fight since March of 2005 when Erik Morales beat him so would a loss to Marquez be forgiveable? Or would it ruin the high hopes of Pacquiao vs. Mayweather?
On March 19, 2005 Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao fought in a super featherweight bout for the vacant WBC International super featherweight title and vacant International Boxing Association super featherweight title.
HBO Boxing Classic: Erik Morales vs. Manny Pacquiao I (2005) (HBO)
Judges at ring side
Erik Morales
Manny Pacquiao
Chuck Giampa
115
113
Dave Moretti
115
113
Paul Smith
115
113
Judges finals scores: Paul Smith 115-113 | Dave Moretti 115-113 | Chuck Giampa 115-113 all in favor of the winner by unanimous decision Erik Morales.
In 2009 Shane Mosley was accused of using the same steroid substances that Barry Bonds used and was connected to Victor Conte, president of BALCO sports nutrition center in California, but guess what? Mosley never tested positive for steroid use.
It might come as as surprise to many people but even the Nevada Athletic State Commission does not administer what would be considered stringent drug testing. In a memorandum written on May 24, 2008, Chairman John Bailey wrote “There has been some indication through comments made during the Commission’s public meetings that these non-compliant fighters have become very sophisticated in the timing of taking prohibited substances.”
This would seem to indicate that the Commission knows that some fighters are beating their tests and they need to improve. They should know because they knew about Mosley. So did Oscar De La Hoya.
On May 8, 2011 Oscar tweeted “People ask me if I have respect for Mosley? I always will even though he fought me when he was on roids.”
Which leads us to the Manny Pacquiao Floyd Mayweather debacle.
Manny Pacquiao turned down a multi-million dollar mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. because Mayweather was requesting Olympic style random blood testing. Mayweather was also quoted saying he “wants to help cleanup the sport of boxing.”
Floyd is not the first boxer to make such a request. Mike Tyson asked for similar type of blood testing before his fight with Evander Holyfield. However, Holyfield agreed and turned up clean.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, was the trainer for James “Lights Out” Toney when he was caught using a banned substance after his bout with John Ruiz which led Toney to be stripped of the WBA title.
If you are an avid boxing fan you know that we saw a new Manny Pacquiao in his fight against David Diaz. In the fight three months prior to that Manny fought Juan Manuel Marquez and he looked sluggish. Most of us thought Manny had hit the point in his career where he was going to start to decline. All of the sudden magically Manny comes back to fight Diaz and looked like a 22 year old fighter who’s able to be a high volume puncher all the sudden with more power. – Bruce Blitz
The following video from Bruce Blitz is pretty informative and includes quotes from experts on the subject of athletes and steroids.
Manny Pacquiao on steroids?? The question must be asked and answered!
