By Mark Vester
WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito will return to the ring on March 3, in a ten round non-title bout against an opponent to be announced. The bout will be held on the undercard to Miguel Cotto's defense of the WBA welterweight title against mandatory Oktay Urkal. The event will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Top Rank head Bob Arum confirmed the return to boxing scribe Dan Rafael, and said that HBO would televise the event as Showtime did not counter their much higher offer.
But, Arum did note to Rafael that Showtime still has a chance of snagging Margarito before a March 3 HBO appearance can be set in stone. Based on the terms of Arum's contract from his December 2 card that was televised on Showtime, Arum must make a formal offer of Margarito's next bout to the network. Arum does not think Showtime will take the bout.
HBO and Arum are banking on both Cotto and Margarito winning their bouts in order to set up a June 9 HBO pay-per-view meeting that would be held in Madison Square Garden, and falls on the Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend.
Arum said the list of leading candidates for Margarito's March 3 opponents are topped by Andrey Tsurkan (stopped Hector Camacho, Jr. in eight rounds last June), and David Estrada (stopped in ten rounds by Kermit Cintron last April in a fight of the year contender).
Because Margarito has no intention of facing mandatory challenger Paul Williams in the near future, he is probably going to be stripped of his WBO title by the time he enters the ring in March.