By Steve Kim
BoxingScene.com has been advised by Sergio Diaz, the long-time co-manager of Antonio Margarito (40-8, 27 KO's), that his fighter will be facing Carson Jones in Chihuahua, Mexico on September 2nd.
For Margarito, who faced Jorge Paez Jr. and Ramon Alvarez in his return to the ring in 2016, this is a fight that his manager strongly suggested.
Diaz explained - "He needs to get into a real fight, he can't keep fighting guys like Paez Jr.,he's a smaller guy, and 'Canelo's brother. I mean, c'mon, we know what type of opponents they were. So he needs to get into a real fight. Mexico wanted to do a rematch with Paez Jr."
It was at that point that Diaz had a heart-to-heart discussion with his fighter.
"I was telling Tony,'what do you want to do? Do you want to continue fighting rematches with Paez Jr and everybody is going to laugh and write bad things about it. If you want to just fight and make this kind of money, over $200,000 a fight, you can fight five times and make over a million dollars. Are you looking to hopefully get a big fight? What do you want to do?'"
Margarito agreed with Diaz and various names in the top ten at 154 were submitted to promoter Fernando Beltran, who was unable to secure any of those boxers but eventually Jones, who has earned a reputation as a solid pro, was tabbed for the assignment.
"If he can't beat a Carson Jones, there's no way he should be in the ring with guys who are even better than him. So Toney said,'OK, let's do this."
For Margarito, this is a way to validate what many believe is an ill-advised comeback.
"It has to be this type of opponent. Tony really hates when they write negative things about him, well, he's now in a real fight,''Diaz stated."There's still going to be some negative stuff but there will be some positive."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
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