37 year old Sugar Shane Mosely “brought the pain to (Antonio) Margarito, stood his ground like a man™s man™s man, and pretty much fought a flawless fight all around,” gushed No Mas’ Large in the aftermath of Saturday’s welterweight title fight at the Staples Center. “(Mosely) is a consummate professional “ always in tremendous shape, always fighting with intelligence and urgency, and always going for the throat when the opportunity presents itself,” continued Large, hailing an achievement that’s all the more impressive considering Maragarito might’ve had the benefit of illegally doctored gloves eariler in the fight, as the New York Post’s George Willis reports.
The California State Athletic Commission is examining two pieces of harden gauze that were part of Margarito’s hand wraps.
Should the CSAC see and hear enough evidence to warrant a suspension or fine of Margarito and his team, it would taint the Mexican’s legacy and all but ruin his chances of reaching the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Clearly, this decision is the most important of his career.
“He’s tainted everything he has done,” Hall of Fame trainer and HBO broadcaster Emanuel Steward said yesterday. “Now you’ve got a situation where every fighter that he has fought is wondering, ‘Did he do that to me?’ I hate this happened because it makes it where there are questions about everybody he has fought.”
Now the question is whether Margarito had loaded wraps for that fight, too. “Now the biggest victory of his career is being questioned,” Steward said.
Margarito’s dominance over Miguel Cotto was one reason a record crowd of 20,820 fans filled the Staples Center for the Mosley fight. But after the two hardened blocks were discovered by Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson, Margarito had no chance against Mosley, losing by TKO in the ninth round. Coincidence?
“I don’t think anybody would have beaten Shane that night,” Richardson said, “but with that plaster in there, it might have made it a little rougher.”