Undefeated Welterweight Mike Jones talks about his November 13th fight with Jesus Soto Karass on the Manny Pacquiao – Antonio Margarito Undercard

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Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito two day Dallas excursion is captured by Top Rank’s Chris Farina starting with a visit to a Dallas Cowboys pre season game that was followed up by the press conference to announced their November 13 fight

Former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito talks about about his November 13 showdown with Manny Pacquiao

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World renowned trainer Freddie Roach discusses the big November 13 showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito

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Pound for Pound king Manny Pacquiao talks to the media about his November 13 fight with Antonio Margarito

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Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito meet the media in New New York city to announce their November 13th fight

Watch Pacquiao – Margarito New York Press Conference Part 1 in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
PART 2

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PART 3

Watch Pacquiao – Margarito New York Press Conference part 3 in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

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.”

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