Antonio Margarito

Antonio Margarito Montiel (born on March 18, 1978 in Torrance, California) is a Mexican-American professional boxer. He is a former WBA, WBO & IBF Welterweight Champion.^[1] Nicknamed El Tornado de Tijuana, he is known for his aggressive fighting style and his iron chin. He is currently trained by former IBF Super Featherweight Champion Roberto García.^[2] Antonio also manages IBF Lightweight Champion Miguel Vázquez.^[3]

He's known for his controversial hand wraps in some of his fights, most notable occasion containing sources of the infamous Plaster of Paris substance wrapped in his gloves in his fight with Shane Mosley.

Personal life

He resides in Tijuana, Baja California with his wife Michelle Margarito. He is the brother-in-law of undefeated prospect Hanzel Martinez.^[4]

Amateur career

Margarito compiled a record of 18–3 in his relatively brief amateur career, indicating that he may have turned pro quickly due to financial concerns.^[5]

Professional career

Welterweight

Margarito made his debut at the age of 15, beating Jose Trujillo in Tijuana by decision. On April 25 he achieved his first knockout, defeating Victor Angulo in the second round. On October 17 he suffered his first defeat, a six round decision to Victor Lozoya. Over the next six bouts, he went 4–2. Following that, he went 28–2–1, with notable wins over Alfred Ankamah, Juan Soberanes, future World Middleweight Champion Sergio Gabriel Martinez, Buck Smith, David Kamau and Frankie Randall, a former World Light Welterweight Champion who became the first man to beat Julio César Chávez in 91 fights.

WBO Welterweight Championship

On July 21, 2001, he got his first world title try against southpaw Daniel Santos for the WBO Welterweight title at Bayamón, Puerto Rico's Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum. The fight had to be stopped in the first round as a consequence of a clash of heads that opened deep gashes on both fighters and sent them both to a nearby hospital. Because the fight had not gone at least four rounds, a technical decision could not be awarded. The bout was declared a no contest and Santos retained the belt.

Capturing the title

Santos then vacated the WBO title to go up in weight and pursue the WBO Light Middleweight Championship and Margarito was assigned to fight Antonio Díaz for the vacant title in front of an HBO Boxing audience. On March 16, 2002, Margarito crowned himself world champion, beating Diaz by knockout in round ten. He defended that crown with a decision in twelve over Danny Perez Ramírez and a knockout in two over former WBA title holder Andrew Lewis. Lewis was a southpaw and a hard puncher, but had been exposed as having a weak chin, while Margarito proved that he has a world class chin. He publicly asked for a unification bout with then WBC and WBA Champion Ricardo Mayorga.

At this point, Margarito considered going up in weight to try to lure Fernando Vargas, Oscar De La Hoya or Shane Mosley into a lucrative fight, or Santos into a rematch at the light middleweight division. On October 17, 2003, Margarito made his light middleweight division debut with a two round knockout win over Maurice Brantley in Phoenix, Arizona.

On January 31, 2004, back in the welterweight division, he retained his title with a second round knockout of Canada's previously undefeated Hercules Kyvelos.

Margarito faced Daniel Santos in a rematch on September 11 of the same year at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan for Santos' WBO Light Middleweight title. The rematch also ended because of a headbutt, but this time, as the fight had already reached the four rounds mark needed for fights like these to be decided by judges, Margarito lost by a split ten round technical decision. He was down on two scorecards when the fight was stopped.

On April 23, 2005, Margarito retained his WBO welterweight title against another Puerto Rican, undefeated world class puncher Kermit Cintron, dropping him four times on his way to a fifth round knockout. This was regarded as one of his best wins.

After almost a ten month layoff, Margarito returned to the boxing ring on February 18, 2006, retaining his title with a first round knockout of Jaime Manuel Gomez, who had lasted eleven rounds with Mosley for the IBF Lightweight title eight and a half years before.

On December 2, 2006, Margarito defeated future champion Joshua Clottey by a twelve round unanimous decision. Margarito set a Compubox all-time record of 1675 total punches thrown in a twelve round bout.^[6]

Losing the title and regaining it

On July 14, 2007, Margarito lost a 12 round unanimous decision to undefeated challenger Paul Williams, losing his WBO belt. After the bout, Margarito heavily disputed the decision, claiming that he had landed the most meaningful punches. Williams, however, landed the most punches (outhitting Margarito by almost a 2–1 ratio and throwing an average of over 100 punches per round) according to compubox.^[7]

On April 12, 2008, Margarito engaged in a rematch with Cintron, who had won the IBF Welterweight title belt following his loss to Margarito in 2005. In the early rounds, Cintron struck Margarito with several flush power shots to the head, but Margarito remained unhurt and continued to execute a game plan of continuously moving forward and pressuring Cintron. In the sixth round, Margarito landed a liver shot, knocking Cintron out and taking the IBF title. As the referee counted Cintron out, HBO cameras captured Margarito from a neutral corner, gesturing upward with his arms and urging Cintron to get up so that the two men could continue fighting for a longer period of time.^[8]

Margarito vs. Cotto

Following his successful rematch with Cintron, the IBF ordered him to fight a mandatory defense against the organization's number-one contender, Joshua Clottey, whom Margarito had previously defeated in 2006. Rather than agreeing to a rematch with Clottey, Margarito vacated the IBF title and agreed to a fight with undefeated WBA Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico. The Cotto-Margarito match took place on July 26, 2008, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Margarito won in the 11th round via technical knockout. Margarito had lost almost all the early rounds, but he came back with relentless pace, eventually winning in the 11th round, in which was one of the fights of the year.^[9] At the time of the stoppage, Margarito was ahead by two rounds on two judges' scorecards, with one judge having it even. Prior to his fight with Shane Mosley, Margarito had a record of 37 wins, 5 losses and 1 no contest, with 27 wins by knockout.

Margarito vs. Mosley

Margarito fought Shane Mosley on January 24, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California^[10][11] to defend his WBA title and for the vacant Lineal Welterweight Championship of Lineal Champs and Cyber Boxing Zone (CBZ).^[12][13] The Ring did not recognize this bout for its vacant Welterweight Championship despite the fact it pitted The Ring #1 ranked welterweight, Antonio Margarito, vs. The Ring #3 ranked welterweight, Shane Mosley. Coming in the bout, Margarito had just stopped the previous The Ring #1 ranked welterweight and current The Ring #2 ranked welterweight, Miguel Cotto.^[14] In the fight, Margarito was battered and outclassed by Mosley and lost the fight and his WBA title by 9th round technical knockout.

Tampered handwraps controversy

Controversy erupted before the fight when Mosley's trainer, Naazim Richardson, observed that Margarito had a pasty white substance in his handwraps.^[15] One doctor described this material as plaster hidden in the wrapped hands of Margarito, leading to accusations that he may have been trying to cheat. At Richardson's insistence, California State Inspector Dean Lohuis called for Margarito's hands to be rewrapped. According to Judd Burstein, the attorney for Mosley, Margarito had wet pads in the wrapping. Mosley's doctor, Robert Olvera, likened the material to the type of plaster used to make casts. Burstein said he seized the pad removed from the wrapping and another pad found in Margarito's dressing room. Both were placed in a sealed box that was given to Lohuis for further study.^[16] The California Department of Justice laboratory later confirmed the substance to be similar in nature to plaster of Paris.^[17]

In late January, the California State Athletic Commission suspended Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, pending investigation.^[18] At the hearing, Margarito claimed he did not know what was in the wraps, while Capetillo admitted to making "a big mistake" by placing the wrong inserts into Margarito's hand wraps. The commission voted unanimously to revoke Margarito and Capetillo's licenses for at least one year. While it found Margarito did not know about the gloves, it took the line that as head of the team, he was responsible for Capetillo's actions. Since state boxing commissions generally honor suspensions imposed in other states, this action effectively banned Margarito from boxing in the United States.^[19]

In November 2009, it emerged that red stains on the hand wraps Margarito used in the Cotto fight were similar to the stains on the inserts seized before the Mosley fight. This has raised suspicions that Margarito's gloves were loaded for that fight and possibly others as well.^[20]

Latin Fury 14

Margarito was scheduled to return to the ring on March 13, 2010 against Carson Jones, pending his relicensing, on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard. But for reasons unspecified, promoter Top Rank announced he would not return.^[21] Margarito expressed interest in fighting Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao if the latter's bout with Floyd Mayweather did not materialize.

His comeback fight was postponed until May 8 and was held at Aguascalientes, Mexico, where he faced light middleweight contender Roberto García (21–2).^[22] Margarito won a ten round unanimous decision over Garcia to capture the vacant WBC International Light Middleweight title.^[23][24] The judges’ score cards were 99–89, 100–88 and 99–90, all in favor of Margarito.^[25]

Margarito vs. Pacquiao

On July 23, 2010, Bob Arum announced that Margarito would face Manny Pacquiao for the WBC Light Middleweight Championship that was vacated by current Middleweight Champion Sergio Gabriel Martinez.^[26][27] The fight took place on Saturday, November 13, 2010 in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as Margarito got a boxing license in Texas, United States.^[28][29] In his Camp for this fight, Margarito had four southpaw sparring partners who are the undefeated; Karim Martínez, Cleotis Pendarvis,^[30] number one mandatory for the WBA Light Middleweight title, Austin Trout, and U.S. Olympic Silver Medalist Ricardo Williams.^[31][32] Despite having a 17 pound weight advantage, a 4.5 inch height advantage, and a six inch reach advantage, Margarito was dominated by Pacquiao and took a savage, brutal beating.^[33] The fight wound up being a unanimous decision loss for Margarito, with the judges' scorecards being 120–108, 119–109, and 118–108.^[33][34] Margarito was taken to the hospital directly after the fight where it was discovered that his right orbital bone had been fractured. Surgery had to be postponed to three days later as his face was too swollen to operate on.^[35]

Five weeks before the fight, Margarito and boxer Brandon Rios were interviewed by Elie Seckbach and the video taken showed the group mocking Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach who has Parkinson's disease.^[36][37] On the Thursday before the fight, Margarito publicly apologized to Roach and to everyone suffering from Parkinson's.^[36]

Margarito vs. Cotto II

On December 3, 2011, Margarito was defeated by Miguel Cotto via TKO by doctor stoppage in the 10th round. The fight was stopped at the start of the 10th round because of the condition of Margarito's right eye, which was swelled shut. This was the same eye that was badly damaged in his previous fight with Manny Pacquiao and the one that almost kept the New York State Athletic Commission from granting him his boxing license because of the special procedure that was performed on it in 2010.

Professional boxing record

38 Wins (27 knockouts, 11 decisions), 8 Losses (2 knockouts, 6 decisions), 0 Draws[38]
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	38–8 1 NC	Miguel Cotto	TKO	10 (12)	2011-12-03	Madison Square Garden, New York, United States	For WBA (Super) Light Middleweight title.
Loss	38–7 1 NC	Manny Pacquiao	UD	12	2010-11-13	Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, United States	For vacant WBC Light Middleweight title.
Win	38–6 1 NC	Roberto García	UD	10	2010-05-08	Plaza de Toros, Aguascalientes, Mexico	Won WBC International Light Middleweight title.
Loss	37–6 1 NC	Shane Mosley	TKO	9 (12), (0:43)	2009-01-24	Staples Center, Los Angeles, United States	Lost WBA (Super) Welterweight title.
Win	37–5 1 NC	Miguel Ángel Cotto	TKO	11 (12) (2:05)	2008-07-26	MGM Grand, Las Vegas, United States	Won WBA Welterweight title.
Win	36–5 1 NC	Kermit Cintrón	KO	6 (12), (1:57)	2008-04-12	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, United States	Won IBF Welterweight title.
Win	35–5 1 NC	Golden Johnson	TKO	1 (12), (2:28)	2007-11-10	Madison Square Garden, New York, United States	Won vacant WBO Inter-Continental Welterweight title.
Loss	34–5 1 NC	Paul Williams	UD	12	2007-07-14	Home Depot Center, Carson, United States	Lost WBO Welterweight title.
Win	34–4 1 NC	Joshua Clottey	UD	12	2006-12-02	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Win	33–4 1 NC	Manuel Gomez	TKO	1 (12), (1:14)	2006-02-18	The Aladdin, Las Vegas, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Win	32–4 1 NC	Kermit Cintrón	TKO	5 (12), (2:12)	2005-04-23	Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Win	31–4 1 NC	Sebastian Lujan	TKO	10 (12), (2:57)	2005-02-18	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Loss	30–4 1 NC	Daniel Santos	TD	10 (12), (3:00)	2004-09-11	Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico	For WBO Light Middleweight title.
Win	30–3 1 NC	Hercules Kyvelos	TD	2 (12), (0:54)	2004-01-31	Dodge Theater, Phoenix, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Win	29–3 1 NC	Maurice Brantley	TKO	2 (10), (2:47)	2003-10-17	Celebrity Theater, Phoenix, United States
Win	28–3 1 NC	Andrew Lewis	TD	2 (12), (2:31)	2003-02-08	Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Win	27–3 1 NC	Danny Perez	UD	12	2002-10-12	Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, Anaheim, United States	Retained WBO Welterweight title.
Win	26–3 1 NC	Antonio Díaz	TKO	10 (12), (2:17)	2002-03-16	Bally, Las Vegas, United States	Won vacant WBO Welterweight title.
NC	26–3 1 NC	Daniel Santos	NC	1 (12), (2:11)	2001-07-21	Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, Bayamon, Puerto Rico	For WBO Welterweight title.
Win	25–3	Robert West	KO	1 (10), (2:19)	2001-03-30	Convention Center, Fort Worth, United States
Win	24–3	Frankie Randall	RTD	4 (10)	2000-12-10	Memphis, United States
Win	23–3	José Luis Benítez	TKO	1 (4), (1:06)	2000-09-17	El Gran Mercado, Phoenix, United States
Win	22–3	David Kamau	TKO	2 (12), 2:59	2000-06-16	Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio, United States	Won WBO NABO Welterweight title.
Win	21–3	Sergio Martinez	TKO	7 (10), (2:57)	2000-02-19	Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, United States
Win	20–3	Efrain Munoz	KO	2 (10), ?:??	1999-12-15	Quiet Cannon, Montebello, United States
Win	19–3	Buck Smith	TKO	5 (8), ?:??	1999-10-23	Will Rogers Coliseum, Fort Worth, United States
Win	18–3	Danny Perez	SD	8	1999-06-12	Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio, United States
Win	17–3	Daniel Mendez	KO	3 (?), ?:??	1999-06-07	Auditorio Municipal, Tijuana, Mexico
Win	16–3	Reyes Estrada	KO	2 (?), ?:??	1998-12-04	Auditorio Municipal Tijuana, Mexico
Win	15–3	Francisco Méndez	KO	10 (?), ?:??	1998-06-27	Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio, United States
Win	14–3	Miguel González	UD	8	1998-04-24	Scottish Rite Center, San Diego, United States
Win	13–3	César Valdez	TKO	5 (10), ?:??	1997-11-29	Orleans Hotel, Las Vegas, United States
Win	12–3	Horatio García	UD	10	1997-06-26	Country Club, Reseda, United States
Win	11–3	Juan Soberanes	UD	10	1996-12-02	The Pond, Anaheim, United States
Win	10–3	Alfred Ankamah	TKO	4 (10)	1996-10-14	Honda Center, Anaheim, United States
Loss	9–3	Rodney Jones	UD	10	1996-06-28	Culver City, United States
Win	9–2	Yoani Cervantes	KO	4 (10), ?:??	1996-04-18	Los Angeles, United States
Loss	8–2	Larry Dixon	UD	10	1996-02-26	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	8–1	Antonio Ojeda	KO	4 (?), ?:??	1995-09-10	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	7–1	Carlos Palafox	PTS	4	1995-03-18	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	6–1	Efrain Muñoz	PTS	4	1995-01-26	Tijuana, Mexico
Loss	5–1	Victor Lozoya	PTS	6	1994-10-17	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	5–0	Francisco López	TKO	3 (4), ?:??	1994-08-05	Ensenada, Mexico
Win	4–0	Cesar Roland	KO	1 (4), ?:??	1994-06-27	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	3–0	Victor Angulo	TKO	4 (4), ?:??	1994-04-25	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	2–0	Gilberto Plata	UD	4	1994-01-21	Tijuana, Mexico
Win	1–0	Jose Trujillo	UD	4	1994-01-14	Tijuana, Mexico	Margarito's professional debut.

Titles in boxing

Major World Titles:

• WBO Welterweight Champion (147 lbs)
• IBF Welterweight Champion (147 lbs)
• WBA Welterweight Champion (147 lbs)

Regional/International Titles:

• WBO NABO Welterweight Champion (147 lbs)
• WBO Inter-Continental Welterweight Champion (147 lbs)
• WBC International Light Middleweight Champion (154 lbs)

See also

• Notable boxing families
• List of Welterweight World boxing champions
• List of IBF World Champions
• List of WBO World Champions
• List of WBA World Champions
• The Battle (Margarito's battle against WBA Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto)

References

External links

• Antonio Margarito Fight-by-Fight Career Record
• Manny Pacquiao vs Antonio Margarito
• Personal Website
• Official Clothing Line
• Professional boxing record for Antonio Margarito from BoxRec