LAS VEGAS – It is impossible to escape questions about Antonio Margarito. Miguel Cotto hears them and dismisses them. Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach hears them and thinks he knows the answer. The only one not heard from is Margarito himself.
Margarito came and went Friday at the official weigh-in for Pacquiao-Cotto confrontation Saturday night. He left the questions, but not a single answer.
Margarito was a no-show for a scheduled appearance and interviews at a market several miles of roadwork from the MGM Grand where Cotto faces Pacquiao. Against the favored Pacquiao, Cotto intends to finally dispel speculation that he was forever damaged in the beat-down delivered by Margarito in July, 2008, also at the MGM Grand.
“The Margarito fight is out of my mind,’’ said Cotto, who has told English-speaking media that he would agree to a rematch and the Spanish-speaking press that he would not because he doesn’t want to help Margarito make money.
Out of Cotto’s mind maybe, but nobody else’s.
To this day, nobody knows whether Margarito’s gloves were loaded with a plaster-like substance against Cotto, who left the ring with a battered face and his only loss. There are only suspicions that have spread since Margarito’s gloves were found to be loaded in Los Angeles before losing last January to Shane Mosley.
Cotto believes that they were. Roach only believes that Cotto lost speed and perhaps some confidence in a crushing defeat that has left him vulnerable to another one. Only Margarito and his advisors know what he believes.
In an attempt to regain a license in the United States, however, it’s time for him to begin stating his case. He faces some inevitable headwinds in the process, no matter whether he tries in Nevada or Arizona or goes back to California where his license was revoked in March. Margarito can re-apply in February.
But his silence isn’t silencing any of the suspicions, which if left unanswered are a powerful argument against him
Maybe, Margarito will begin to talk after the Pacquiao-Cotto fight Saturday night. Word circulated late Friday in the busy Pacquiao-Cotto media room that he would. If he hopes to fight in the United States again, he has no choice.
NOTES, QUOTES
· There had been talk that Cotto might have trouble making the contracted weight, 145 pounds. No way, Cotto trainer Jose Santiago said. “We’re not Mayweathers,’’ Santiago said about 24 hours before Cotto tipped the scales Friday at the mandatory number. “We’re real professionals.’’ Floyd Mayweather Jr. was two pounds too heavy in September for his decision over Juan Manuel Marquez, who collected $600,000 — $300,000 a pound.
· The buzz, like an early wake-up call, was there before sunrise Friday. Fans started lining up at 5:30 a.m. for a 3 p.m. weigh-in at the MGM Grand.
· It was running 2-to-1 in favor of Pacquiao in a Top Rank poll of writers. Late Friday, sixteen had picked Pacquiao and eight had Cotto.
· The Shane Mosley-Andre Berto fight on Jan. 30 is scheduled to be formally announced at a news conference Saturday morning at Mandalay Bay.
· Big bets on Pacquiao-Cotto started coming in a couple of weeks ago, according to Jay Rood, Race & Sports Book Director for the MGM and Mirage. There were single wagers for as much as $250,000. “Hope to see more,’’ said Hood, who anticipates that Pacquiao will be a 3-to-1 favorite at opening bell. There has been about as much betting action for Pacquiao-Cotto as there was for Floyd Mayweather’s victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, Rood said.
· If Yuri Foreman (27-0, 8 KOs) takes the World Boxing Association’s version of the 154-pound championship from Puerto Rican Daniel Santos (32-3-1, 23 KOs) on the Pacquiao-Cotto undercard, he will be the first Israeli to win a major title. He might also be the first Rabbi with a boxing belt. He is a rabbinical student. On the non-televised part of the card, there is another Israeli, bantamweight Eilon Kedem (9-1-4, 6 KOs), who faces Filipino Eden Sonsona (13-3, 3 KOs). Kedem served in the Israeli Navy.
Photo by Chris Farina/ Top Rank