By Keith Idec (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)

ARLINGTON, Texas — Based on the reception he has received from mostly Mexican fight fans here, Antonio Margarito clearly convinced some people that he wasn’t at all aware of the hard pads Javier Capetillo slid inside his hand wraps on that infamous night 21 months ago at Staples Center.

“The Tijuana Tornado” even convinced some seemingly very naive people that he wasn’t mocking Freddie Roach’s brave battle against Parkinson’s disease during that disgusting Internet video that surfaced earlier this week.

Tonight, though, he’ll have to prove perhaps the most unbelievable story he has tried to sell over the past few months — that he is capable of beating Manny Pacquiao.

Margarito might own size and strength advantages entering their 12-round fight for the WBC super welterweight title, but there is nothing about their contrasting recent histories that should convince anyone that Margarito is going to stop Pacquiao’s recent run of dominance when they square off tonight at Cowboys Stadium (HBO Pay-Per-View; $54.95).

The 5-foot-11 Margarito looked completely pedestrian in producing a 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over Mexico’s Roberto Garcia (28-3, 21 KOs) on May 8 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. His previous performance amounted to a nine-round beating at the hands of Shane Mosley, moments after trainer Naziim Richardson discovered those potentially lethal hand wraps.

Thus Margarito’s most recent impressive victory came two years and 3½ months ago against Miguel Cotto. The ensuing hand-wrapping scandal at the very least makes one wonder if there was anything amiss when Margarito overcame Cotto’s early work to wear down the rugged Puerto Rican boxer-puncher in July 2008 in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, has been busy dominating elite-level opponents since his highly competitive split-decision win against Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez in March 2008. Most of those victims were bigger and supposedly stronger (Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey), while others simply were overmatched against the most influential, most popular boxer in the world (David Diaz and Ricky Hatton).

Some fans and media members claim he won’t be able to extend his hit list, though. They think weighing 144.6 pounds for a 150-pound championship match means Margarito’s size advantage has become insurmountable, that an infamous former 147-pound champion will make sure the long-awaited Pacquiao-Mayweather mega-fight never materializes.

Pacquiao’s own trainer shares their skepticism. Roach went as far as to state during HBO’s “Pacquiao-Margarito, 24/7” series that he has had anxiety attacks while worrying that Pacquiao will lose to a 5-1 underdog. If Pacquiao shares any of those doubts as the fight approaches, he has hid those fears well while appearing to be his usual happy, playful self.

“I am in 100-percent condition,” Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) said, “and there is nothing to worry about.”

Even Margarito (38-6, 27 KOs, 1 NC) acknowledged Pacquiao’s greatness.

“What he has done, no other fighter has done,” Margarito said. “Coming from a small weight and moving up to this heavier weight. I have to admire someone that can keep the power going. … he’s a great boxer.”

KHAN’S KILLER TAKE : Amir Khan doesn’t expect Margarito’s edges in height (nearly five inches), reach and weight will help him pull off a huge upset.

“I don’t think it’s going to make a difference,” England’s Khan said. “I think Manny’s going to hit him like a punching bag, hit him when he wants to hit him. He’s going to be sharp. But I think it’s good that because Margarito is bigger, people are putting fear in Manny’s head. It’ll make Manny sharper. It’ll make him more relentless because he won’t want to make any mistakes. I see Manny winning by TKO.”

Khan, one of Pacquiao’s sparring partners throughout training camp for this fight, isn’t concerned that Pacquiao’s supposed problems preparing for this HBO Pay-Per-View main event will hurt him, either.

“He’s sharp, strong,” said Khan (23-1, 17 KOs), who’ll encounter Argentina’s Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KOs) for the WBA junior welterweight title Dec. 11 in Las Vegas. “I spent the whole camp with him and he’s in the best condition he can be in.

“All these rumors about him not doing this, not doing that, maybe in the Philippines it was a little bit hard because he was going to Congress. But when he was in [Hollywood. Calif., at Roach’s Wild Card Gym], he trained so hard, sparred really well. I don’t think he lost a round of sparring in L.A. Manny had a good camp.”

RIOS’ ROUGH WEEK: Lightweight contender Brandon Rios’ week went from bad to worse Friday night.

After three tries, the unbeaten boxer from Oxnard, Calif., failed to meet the contracted weight (139 pounds) for his 10-round fight tonight against Omri Lowther (14-2, 10 KOs) by two ounces. His inability to lose those two ounces cost Rios (25-0-1, 18 KOs) a $5,000 penalty from his purse, which was paid to Lowther.

Two days earlier, Rios helped create a huge controversy by imitating Roach’s speech impediments, caused by Parkinson’s disease, during a videotaped interview at the gym owned and operated by his trainer, Robert Garcia, in Oxnard.

The Lowther-Rios fight, a 10-rounder, will the first of four fights televised tonight from Cowboys Stadium, starting at 9 p.m. EST.

RECORD-SETTER?: More than 40,000 tickets had been sold to the card as of Friday night.

Promoter Bob Arum hopes strong walk-up sales today, similar to the roughly 20,000 tickets that were sold the day eight months ago that Pacquiao out-pointed Ghana’s Clottey (35-4, 20 KOs, 1 NC) at Cowboys Stadium, will help break the American indoor record for boxing attendance. The record was set in September 1978, when 63,350 attended the Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks heavyweight championship rematch at The Superdome in New Orleans.

An announced crowd of nearly 51,000 attended the Pacquiao-Clottey welterweight title fight March 13 at Cowboys Stadium.

Keith Idec covers boxing for the Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, NJ., and BoxingScene.com. For more from him, Click Here