One can only imagine how things would have been different in Antonio Margarito’s life without the actions of respected trainer Naazim Richardson. After all it was Richardson who helped bring the recent hand wrapping controversy surrounding Margarito to life because of his quick thinking while in Antonio’s dressing room before his TKO loss last year to Shane Mosley at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Heading into the Mosley-Margarito bout the two fighters’ careers seemed to be headed in different directions. Margarito’s star status was at an all-time high after his riveting comeback TKO over Miguel Cotto in July of 2008 while Mosley seemed to look rather ordinary in struggling to defeat Nicaragua's Ricardo Mayorga by way of a last second knockout months later. Margarito was looked at as the heavy favorite and few could have expected how the turn of events would unfold.
On the night of January 24th, 2009 Richardson seemed to notice something peculiar about the way the Tijuana fighter’s trainer Javier Capetillo was wrapping Antonio’s hands just moments before he was set to enter the ring. Richardson would ask for the wraps to be inspected and when looking back at his actions it was obvious he was simply looking out for his fighter’s best interests.
“My main thing is to protect my athlete,” Richardson told me while taking a small trip back in time. “I saw the hand wrapping process and I asked to feel the pad. When I felt the pad it was exceptionally hard and I was uncomfortable with that. So I passed that [information] on.”
The pads were confiscated and Margarito was later punished in the ring by a rabid Mosley over nine one-sided rounds. The following month the California State Athletic Commission suspended the fighter and his trainer after it was discovered that elements of plaster of paris were discovered in the pads. Margarito’s reputation was instantly questioned and a black cloud has been hanging over his head ever since.
It would end up being over a year since Mosley and Margarito would set foot inside the ring again, with Shane losing a decision to Floyd Mayweather on May 1st of this year while Margarito returned by defeating Roberto Garcia via ten round decision one week later in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Margarito now finds himself back in the spotlight with an upcoming November 13th showdown with Manny Pacquiao on the horizon and in looking at the situation Richardson admits that perhaps he is the wrong man to ask since he was so closely connected to Margarito’s scandal.
“I don’t pay too much attention to it,” Richardson continued. “I know there was some fuss about Margarito trying to get his license back. I kind of had a feeling that Texas would [approve him]. Like I say, I’m biased in the sense that if a guy almost ran my daughter over you couldn’t come ask me when he would get out of jail. I know he should get out sometime because he didn’t run her over but it wouldn’t be fair to ask me about it.”
One thing Richardson is confident of is Pacquiao’s abilities inside the ring, as his respect for the Filipino star has always come across resoundingly. While giving the General Santos City fighter his just due Richardson is also quick to point out that perhaps Margarito has been overlooked because of the constant drama that has been surrounding his career for the past year and a half.
“I’m a believer in Pacquiao and I’m a believer in his capabilities and I actually believe in Margarito’s abilities,” Richardson claimed. “I thought there was too much fanfare pushed on the mindset of where Margarito was in the fight because of the discovery the illegal wrappings. I asked people ‘We found out what he had in his hands but what did he have in his jaw?’. Some of that stuff he got hit with was unbelievable. The kid’s chin is something special. I’ve seen him win fights because of his chin.”
Throughout the entire ordeal Margarito has professed his innocence while claiming that he simply didn’t know about the manner in which Capetillo was wrapping his hands. Those proclamations have been shot down by many but in closing Richardson points out that without any concrete proof all people can do is assume what really happened.
“Anything is possible. Not to be disrespectful but you can never tell the level of someone’s ignorance. Just to be brutally honest you would be shocked at the level of someone’s ignorance. When people say things like ‘It was 102 outside and I accidentally left my baby daughter in the backseat of a car’, I’m going to find that hard to believe but there are people out there who have reached that level of stupidity or whatever you want to call it. If he says that he didn’t knowI can’t say for certain that he did. We can all speculate but I can’t say anything for certain.”
Source: http://www.examiner.com
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