by David P. Greisman
Does the crime dictate the punishment? Or do the consequences of the crime dictate the consequences for the criminal?
Those are the questions that those in boxing must ultimately contemplate when it comes time to decide whether Antonio Margarito should be allowed to fight again.
Two months ago, Margarito was caught with a foreign substance in his hand wraps prior to his fight with Shane Mosley. The California State Athletic Commission official charged with supervising Margarito’s dressing room never noticed the tampering. Only when Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson, entered was the foul play discovered.
Here is the rundown of what happened Jan. 24, 2009, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times:
Richardson objected to the way in which Margarito’s hands were wrapped, telling officials the tape was too thick. As Margarito’s hands were unwrapped, Richardson noticed two pads that had been inserted inside the hand wraps. Those pads looked as if they were wet and had a substance on them that looked like Plaster of Paris.
The substance was removed. Margarito’s hands were rewrapped. Nine rounds later, Margarito was knocked out.
Margarito could be out much longer.
In February, the CSAC revoked Margarito’s license and that of his trainer, Javier Capetillo, a ruling that would prevent either from working in the state for a year. Last week we found out just what was on those pads.
Calcium and sulfur. Combine those two with oxygen and you have Plaster of Paris.
A boxer’s fists are dangerous weapons. Coat the wraps around them with something harder than the normal tape and gauze and those fists become deadly weapons.
By revoking Margarito’s license, the CSAC effectively kept him from fighting throughout the United States. Margarito could apply for a license elsewhere, but other states would likely respect California officials’ ruling.
Margarito could fight outside of the United States. Doing so, however, would probably raise the ire of commission officials in America should he choose to fight in the States again.
All that may be moot.
Margarito can apply for reinstatement in 2010. When he does, those who hear his case must decide whether the crime alone dictates the punishment, or if what consequences became of the crime dictate what consequences there should be for the criminal.
The difference between the latter and the former will decide what Margarito’s punishment will be: a year or a career.
In 1983, Luis Resto was caught cheating after giving a 10-round beating to Billy Collins Jr. Resto and his trainer, Panama Lewis, would spend time behind bars after being convicted of removing padding from Resto’s gloves. Collins, partially blinded, struggled with depression and died in a car accident less than a year later. Earlier last year, 25 years after that fight, Resto admitted that, in addition to having unpadded gloves, he had soaked his hand wraps in plaster of Paris before the bout.
Resto and Lewis were banned from boxing forever.
In criminal law, there is a difference between actually assaulting a person and conspiring to commit an assault.
Boxing is not bound by such a line.
Those in power need not be forced to wait for a fighter to move beyond the conspiracy stage. The intent was there. Illegal, hardened pads were in Margarito’s wraps. Those hands would soon be in gloves. Those hands would soon hit another man. Had Margarito fought with those wraps and given Shane Mosley a career-ending beating, there would be no need for debate.
There are those who defend Margarito. Capetillo, his trainer, took the blame at a CSAC hearing, saying he was fully responsible for the illegal hand wraps. Capetillo offered a dubious reason for why it happened, saying he mistakenly picked up wraps another fighter had previously used in the gym.
Right.
Capetillo fell on his sword for the sake of his fighter, doing so in a manner in which he tried to deflect the brunt of any backlash away from Margarito while still salvaging his own career.
Margarito is the boss of his team. Though he entrusts his trainer and his cornermen with the responsibility of getting him through everything from training camp until the final bell, elite athletes should not be able to plead ignorance and blame others when caught breaking the rules.
A baseball player should know what substance is being injected into his body. A boxer should know what his trainer is putting on his hands – the tools of his trade.
True, Margarito didn’t wear those illegal, hardened pads into the ring. He did not give a career-ending beating. But the same could be said of Edward Mpofu and his bout with Thanduxolo Dyani.
Mpofu, a featherweight from South Africa, was allegedly caught with Plaster of Paris in his gloves following a fight this past September. Mpofu would lose a six-round decision to Dyani, and Dyani reportedly escaped with little injury beyond a swollen left eye.
Mpofu is the middle ground between Antonio Margarito and Luis Resto. Unlike Margarito, he didn’t get caught with the Plaster of Paris until after the fight. Unlike Resto, the cheating didn’t do him any good.
Mpofu will never be allowed to fight again. Margarito shouldn’t either.
Margarito has more backing because he has a name and a following. Before he lost to Mosley, he was the welterweight champion, a longtime veteran who many had avoided and few had respected. When Margarito stopped Miguel Cotto last year to become the top welterweight in the world, he also became a Mexican hero, a guaranteed ticket seller.
In this sport, money often wins out over integrity.
After the CSAC revoked Margarito’s license, the fighter’s promoter, Bob Arum, decried the commission’s decision and spoke of bringing Margarito to Mexico.
What will he say now? What would he have said had another fighter tried this against someone from his own stable?
Arum would probably say he’d want what many of us are now calling for. For a cheater not to prosper. For the punishment to match the intent of the crime. For the commissions and sanctioning bodies to ban Margarito, hitting him as hard as he could have and would have hit someone else had he gotten away with it.
