What's Next For All you Margaretards Out There?

It would seem that after his career defining victory this past weekend that established him as possibly the top fighter in the division, Antonio Margarito should have his pick of the welterweight divison for his first title defense. But not so fast. With his superhuman performance against one of the best fighters in the world, has he furthered his self-fulfilling prophecy of  his past label as the "most avoided man in boxing"? Who is going to want to get in the ring with this guy after witnessing that? It is possible that he may have just put on such a good performance that, whether he likes it or not, he has laid claim to his former moniker.

However, there is one major difference now than from a few years back, when, as the tale goes, Floyd Mayweather Jr. turned down 8 million dollars to fight The Tijuana Tornado. This time he not only has the top crown in the division, but after proving that he could headline a Pay-Per-View event that created so much buzz and excitement (i.e. $$$$$), he now has the the dollar draw to attract nearly any fighter (no matter how badly they would like to avoid him).

With that said, the victory opens the door to a handful of very interesting fights. The original idea was to have the winner of the fight go on to face the The Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, in his grand finale on December 6th. But the name that was always talked about for that fight was Cotto, so when Margarito won and looked like a beast doing it, Oscar said no thanks - declaring that he did not want to end his career fighting another Mexican fighter (another way of saying I want to leave the sport, but not on a stretcher). So thats out.

The next possible intriguing match-up would be with Paul The Punisher Williams, the same man who took the title from Antonio one year ago.  One could argue that the 6'1 freak is the best welterweight in the division - his only loss was avenged in the rematch in under 2 minutes and he beat Margarito who beat Cotto. In the first match-up Williams started to fade in the late rounds as Margarito began to pick it it up, but is was a little too late and he ran out of time. The fight ended in a fairly close decision for Williams.

Next, is the most obvious choice, a re-match of the fight of the year candidate against Miguel Cotto. This fight would draw even more attention than the first and would surely be as exciting, if not better. However, it would be surprising if Cotto took this fight directly after that tough loss, especially when he fought great and gave him everything he had, but still couldn't come out on top.

Finally we have The Pretty Boy.  Will the constant repetition of the fact that he turned down a fight for big bucks against Tony draw him out of "retirement"? We know at some point he is going to come back and pull a Sugar Ray Leonard on us, but would this be the best fight to do it? If he came back and soundly beat Margarito, a fighter that looked nearly indestructible and is still hot from that last fight, he would be building a strong case for his top ten all-time pound-for-pound ranking (and we might possibly stop calling him names).

The Cotto-Margarito bout brought something to boxing that was sorely needed - some major buzz from the regular world. There is no doubt in our minds that a match-up with one of these fighters could inevitably duplicate that success.

De La Hoya Tuned up

Last night the Golden Boy honed his skills against the over-matched Steve 2 Pound Forbes.  If it were a movie script, there were very few moments in which the fight failed to follow the plot-line that the writers would have intended,  for the most part we all witnessed what was expected.

Forbes, fighting up in weight and giving three inches in height and arm length, gave De La Hoya everything he could muster.  Although losing every round but two (by my count) Forbes was absorbing some of Oscar's best shots and never really found him self in any danger of being KO'd. This could be either a testament to Forbe's tough chin or the fading power of the Golden Boy's once devastating left hook.  With that said, De La Hoya did look faster and more agile than we have seen in years.  But it is time to face reality.  

In this decade De La Hoya has done two notable things:

1.) He has become the most popular boxer of his era, transcending the sport as we know it; a boxer and a business mogul   2.) He has lost nearly every major fight in which he faced a top opponent.  

De La Hoya is not the fighter he used to be or maybe ever was.  It is possible that his immense popularity coupled with a few signature wins have led both

the boxing media and the general public to rank him higher than his abilities would suggest. Since 1999, he has suffered defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Felix Trinidad, twice by Shane Mosley, was KO'd by Bernard Hopkins, and we can consider his fight with the previously undefeated Felix Sturm a loss as well, because it seemed as though the only reason he was given the decision was due to the Golden Boy's impending super-fight already scheduled for the coming months with Hopkins.  Which leads me to a point... tune-up fights.  

The excitement (or lack there of) leading up to this fight and others like them recalls memories of how I felt when I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, driving to my great aunt and uncle's to have dinner at one of California's finest barbecue chains (which actually isn't that bad except for the fact that every time I visit they tell me I have to try this new place to eat - I think they forget that they have taken me there the last three times.) That bad. 

Let face it, nothing short of knocking De La Hoya cold through the ropes would have propelled Steve Forbes to a victory last night.  There are hundreds of millions of dollars that would not have been spent and subsequently made if The Golden Boy lost the bout.  For instance, two months ago I happened to catch a glimpse of a not yet released fight poster (I may or may not be fairly close with the artist) depicting an illustration of Mayweather and De La Hoya for a promotion waiting to be distributed by a major company.  Two months ago!  The contract for the fight has yet to be officially signed and sanctioned, yet these people are making posters. That sheds some light on how this fight was going to turn out from the start, no matter what happened. Not cool.  

Last but not least, I found it very interesting to watch The Golden Boy's selection process for his opponent in this fight.  He seemed to be searching for small, quick, intelligent boxers to simulate a fight between his upcoming adversary.  After tossing around many names, he narrowed it down to three, one of them being the junior welterweight IBF champion, Paulie Malignaggi.  Now that got me excited.  Malignaggi would have with out a doubt been a perfect simulation of Mayweather's style. Such a close simulation in fact, it would have been too close to the real thing and  The Golden Boy would have found a big L next to his name after the final bell.

Of course Oscar's intelligence and business savvy prevailed once again, and now instead of watching a truly great fight (Malignaggi vs. De La Hoya) with a chance of a De La Hoya loss that would create the possiblity for Mayweather to have take on a different fighter (say Miguel Cotto), we are now subjected to two fights that (I think it is safe to say) you and I could have done without.