By Cliff Rold
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

Mexican welterweight Antonio Margarito (34-4, 24 KO, #2 Ring Magazine, WBO titlist) is the most underappreciated, underrated, avoided welterweight of his generation.

Or he’s not.

Margarito then is the most overrated, overhyped welterweight of the last two generations.

Or he’s not.  Seriously not.

Hardcore fans and many who cover the sport are pretty evenly divided into the two camps described above and there hasn’t been much middle ground.  I’m pretty firmly in the first camp.

Much of the divisiveness stems from Margarito’s inability to secure a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the rhetorical wars that have ensued since.  In that light, young contender Paul Williams (32-0, 24 KO, #10) of Augusta, Georgia enters the ring unwittingly this Saturday night on HBO as Floyd’s proxy. 

Whether fair or not, every opponent for Margarito is a gauge for how Tony might have done, and one day still could do, against the reigning welterweight king.

Thus is the price of pinning so much of one’s career to the tails of a fight that never happened.  Margarito, following a win over current IBF titlist Kermit Cintron (27-1, 25 KO) in April 2005 began an aggressive pursuit of a bout with Floyd.  Fighting only twice in the twenty-six months following the Cintron bout gave plenty of fuel to Margarito critics for whom absence did not make the heart fonder.  It also gave a fighter like Williams time to emerge.

Make no mistake; Williams is a dangerous foe.  How dangerous will be unknown until the opening bell sounds at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.  A search of his resume provides little in the way of answers.  His breakthrough victories, last May against tough Walter Matthysse (26-1, 25 KO) and Sharmba Mitchell last August, impressed but also exposed some holes in Williams’ game.  He gets hit and holds his hands low, looking to bring his punches upward with the full leverage of his 6’1 frame.  So far his speed and athleticism have covered those holes. 

Against a hard hooking veteran like Margarito, holes are targets.  Given the lack of respect Margarito’s career engenders from far too many, and the long-term stakes of this bout, he is likely to attack those targets with blue-collar gusto. 

The stakes at play?  For Margarito, a victory against Williams sets up an earned big-money bout with Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto (30-0, 25 KO, #1, WBA titlist) and a chance to stamp himself with the public mandate he likely feels he should have had years ago for a shot at the true World welterweight championship.

And it should have been years ago.  Put aside all the he said-he said about Margarito-Mayweather not coming together and what’s left is a record over the last five years that screams ‘how in the hell did it take this long for Margarito to get into position to make some money?’  No fighter in boxing is more deserving of a big-money shot.  Margarito detractors (i.e. Mayweather fans under a different name) make points about his style, his ordinary-ness. 

They can’t erase the fact that Mayweather turned down allegedly a career-high payday offer, some $8 million, with an O$car De la Hoya fight in the wings.  Team Mayweather just might have known something Team Anti-Margarito doesn’t.   

Beginning with his WBO title victory over Antonio Diaz on March 16, 2002, Margarito has gone 9-1.  The lone loss came in a disputed technical decision loss at 154 lbs. against fellow WBO titlist Daniel Santos; six of the wins have come against Ring-ranked top ten contenders Diaz, Danny Perez, Andrew Lewis, Kermit Cintron, Sebastian Lujan and Joshua Clottey; of the six, only Lujan may not have been rated when he faced Margarito but was immediately afterwards, albeit briefly.

During the years that Margarito posted his mark against the top-ten, the welterweight title changed hands from Vernon Forrest to Ricardo Mayorga to Cory Spinks to Zab Judah to Carlos Baldomir to Floyd.  There was little argument against each of these men getting a shot (sans Baldomir who prior to facing Judah was decried by most pundits, excluding myself, as a mis-mandatory). 

Keep in mind though that also receiving title shots were foes like Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Cosme Rivera and a much-faded Arturo Gatti.  Many talked about facing Margarito; none did and while Margarito’s handlers share some of the blame for arguably mis-handling their man, so too do the elite level fighters who understood the risk/reward ratios of boxing. 

In his own way, Margarito finds himself in the same shoes worn by Winky Wright at the beginning of 2004 and Mike McCallum in 1987.  Those were the years when both of those great champions went from a career lacking in due recognition to wins that stamped them as players permanently.  Wright defeated Shane Mosley twice, crowning himself the junior middleweight champion of the world; McCallum stopped Milton McCrory and former welter king Donald Curry.  Wright and McCallum couldn’t be more different from Magarito stylistically, but their long road to glory is comparable.

Margarito has Williams and, with a victory, he’ll have Miguel Cotto.  Whether this Saturday, or on a Saturday this fall, most of the answers to questions about Antonio Margarito’s career will have been answered when the bell tolls on 2007.

Roy:  Of course there are two other bouts on HBO this weekend that deserve the attention of fans but before they get their due, a turn to Roy.  This Saturday, if one is willing to part with $30 U.S. dollars, former four-division titlist and pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr. (50-4, 38 KO) enters the ring for the 55th time.  There’s not much of an undercard, so willingness to shell out the extra change will come down to Roy’s place in the buyer’s personal boxing pantheon. 

The man once deemed ‘Reluctant Roy’ has a bevy of detractors who silently giggle at his faded state.  They aren’t likely to buy this endeavor.

That doesn’t mean anything to his diehards.  For fans who think Roy was the best fighter of their generation, even one of the best that ever lived, this light heavyweight bout with Anthony Hanshaw (21-0-1, 14 KO) is must-see TV.  Jones showed in his lone bout of 2006, against Prince Badi Ajamu, that he’s still got the speed and ability to handle the average fighter. 

Hanshaw has a chance to prove that he’s above that curve.  His amateur experience and willingness to get into the pocket and throw, not to mention a near-decades worth of age on his side, make Hanshaw a game and foreboding man for Jones.

Jones, recently turned 38, is in the danger zone that older fighters seem unable to avoid.  Whether Hanshaw is the final act, or the penultimate act, chances to see Roy ply his trade are likely countable on one hands digits so an extra couple bucks might be worth it. 

Atlantic City:  Worth it at least until examining the rest of the HBO show.  Not only do they have Margarito-Williams on the west coast feed, but fans can also anticipate two intriguing bouts live from the Atlantic City Boardwalk. 

The first bout of the evening features two young tigers in search of redemption.  Both Kermit Cintron, the current IBF titlist and Ring #7 rated-welterweight, and Walter Mathysse carry a single loss on their records.  That each man’s loss came to a man on the television, if not venued, main event speaks volumes about the quality of this HBO show and the s of these two warriors.  There are easier bouts that Cintron and Mathysse could have sought out, but they instead face each other knowing that one of them is unlikely to hear the final bell.

This is a bout with some buzz around it.  It is a rare feat that fighters on the undercard of an Arturo Gatti show are suspected to be in the best action fight of the night, but such is the case here.  The 53 total victories between these two feature 52 knockouts.  In other words, this is no Travis Simms-Joachim Alcine.

Then of course there is Gatti (40-8, 31 KO).  Is he shot?  Does he have one last run in him?  Does it matter?  It’s Arturo Gatti.  Period.  The fact that he’s facing a kid from the first season of “The Contender,” Alfonso Gomez (16-3-2, 7 KO), who made his bones by being scrappy and overachieving makes this bout a lock for solid entertainment.  There isn’t a single fight fan, not even among the purists who pretend they are more excited by jabbing fancy dans, that doesn’t have at least two Arturo Gatti fights among their all-time favorites. 

This could be the end for Gatti, or another step closer to it.  The only thing one can know for sure is there aren’t many chances left for fans to hear the sounds of “Thunder” as he walks to the ring.  Before fans start cheering, let’s hope that they wink and remember to say thank you before the opening bell for everything Gatti has given and will likely give again this weekend.

Klitschko’s Final Step:  As I laid it out in this space one week ago, so has the scenario for heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko (48-3, 43 KO, #1, IBF titlist) to emerge as the lone champion of the heavyweight division now emerged.  He needs one more win to declare himself the king and the choice for how he can kill his time while waiting for the winner of Ruslan Chagaev-Sulatn Ibragimov has emerged, clearly if unsettlingly.

Evander Holyfield.

That’s right, I said it.  I know there some fans who cringe at the thought of the 44-year old two-time lineal heavyweight king Holyfield (42-8-2, 27 KO) at the end of Klitschko’s fists.  I don’t.  Evander continues to fight and someone is eventually going to give him a title shot.  It’s best for Evander, and the game, if that man is Klitschko.  Klitscko-Holyfield is a pay-per-view event, leaving regular HBO funds for better fights and Klitschko a chance at the most mainstream coverage he’s ever had.

If it seems I’m writing off Evander’s chances, well then ‘check please.’  Of course I am.  Still, who else can Klitschko fight that sells?  Hasim Rahman was mentioned weeks ago, but after the turd he dropped on Versus against Taurus Sykes on June 14, not to mention the gut he flashed, is he really more deserving than Evander? 

Klitschko-Holyfield actually makes sense.  Make what sense of that you will. 

The Ten-Second Bell:  I know I said I’d do ‘what to expect in the year’s second half’ now for two weeks.  Then the second half started happening in a big way and there’s better stuff to write about.  Moving on…

Flyweight Nonito Donaire (18-1, 11 KO, #2, IBF titlist) could change his last name to Robinson for a day and be about right.  That left hook he used to stop now former IBF titlist Vic (Fullmer) Darchinyan (28-1, 22 KO, #5) last Saturday on Showtime was not only the knockout of 2007; it might well be one of the great knockouts in boxing history.  The Bangkok Post is reporting that lineal World flyweight king Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (65-2, 34 KO) of Thailand is interested in facing the Filipino Donaire in the Phillipines no less.  If that fight happens, Donaire becomes every hardcore fans hero twice over.

With Takefumi Sakata (31-4-1, 15 KO, #3WBA titlist) sharing national boundaries with Japanese megastar Koki Kameda (15-0, 11 KO, unrated), this flyweight junkie is dreaming big dreams.  These four Asian dynamos could throw leather in any direction at each other and actually get paid doing it.  Money and geography have been the prime obstacles in the way of capitalizing on a decade long depth of talent at 112 lbs. that has lacked for a punctuation mark.  This has long been a golden era of flyweight talent.  Could we finally be getting to the fights that prove it?  Everyone can begin crossing their fingers now…

It’s official.  The sports best fight on paper, a super middleweight clash between champion Joe Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KO) of Wales and number one contender Mikkel Kessler (39-0, 29 KO) of Denmark is signed.  As fate may have it, the date at play is November 3rd, currently scheduled for me as an event called ‘honeymoon.’  My intended is accepting offers to convert a portion of that event into a European holiday which is why I’m marrying her (among other things)…

Finally, 115 lb. contender Cristian Mijares (31-3-2, 12 KO, #4, WBC titlist) returns this weekend all but off TV.  His bout with unheralded Teppei Kikui (21-5, 4 KO) is running on an obscure pay-per-view bill, proving that beating a cash cow doesn’t make a fighter one.  This is small reward for the sensational clinic Mijraes provided in blanking former World 108 lb. king Jorge Arce in April.  Mijares, against Arce and in two wins over former lineal World jr. bantamweight king Katsushige Kawashima, has shown ‘it’ and it’s a crime that his talents aren’t being put on better display.   

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com