By Keith Idec
NEW YORK — Antonio Margarito has been beaten so badly in three of his last four fights that it’s difficult to imagine him landing another significant fight in the foreseeable future.
“The Tijuana Tornado,” for all his obvious bravery in taking beatings, seemingly can’t fight for more than a couple rounds without swelling around his right eye becoming an insurmountable issue. It also seems like every time he fights, he has to endure some sort of licensing saga just to get cleared to compete.
Margarito still has no intention of retiring from boxing.
The 33-year-old former welterweight champion intends to fight sometime in 2012, assuming there aren’t any lingering effects from the thrashing he absorbed against Miguel Cotto in their rematch Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
“We’re going to sit down,” Margarito said, “and see what happens next.”
When asked if he feared his surgically repaired right eye would prevent him from fighting again, Margarito added, “I am not worried. My doctor saw it right [after the Cotto fight] and told me that it was fine. It was just swollen.”
Whenever the infamous Mexican fighter is ready to return to the ring, supportive promoter Bob Arum will be there to represent Margarito. Arum said last week that he has spent more than $1 million in attorney’s fees and additional expenses helping Margarito resolve licensing issues stemming from his well-documented January 2009 hand-wrap scandal and his eye surgeries following a lopsided 12-round loss to Manny Pacquiao nearly 13 months ago.
Arum won’t abandon Margarito now, either, though he wouldn’t discuss potential opponents.
“He has to recover,” Arum said. “He fought a courageous fight. Everybody did well [financially] on the fight. We did well, Cotto did well, Margarito did well. And you know, there’s no sense making any plans now, specific plans. It’s silly.”
Margarito (38-8, 27 KOs, 1 NC) wants a rubber match against Puerto Rico’s Cotto, but Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs) is headed in a different direction. Arum would prefer Cotto to fight another Mexican, WBC middleweight title-holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KOs, 1 NC), in his next bout, but Cotto hasn’t indicated how seriously he would consider moving up from 154 pounds for that fight.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.