By Rick Reeno

In response to a recent news brief that appeared on BoxingScene.com, I was contacted by promoter Dan Goossen, who says he could not believe what he was reading, and wanted to take WBA welterweight champ Antonio Margarito to task.

After we reported that Oscar De La Hoya was considering WBO welterweight champ Paul Williams for his December 6 career-ender in Las Vegas, Margarito contacted BoxingScene to make it clear that De La Hoya was using Williams' name to save face  with boxing fans and writers - due to the heavy criticism over his refusal to fight Margarito in December.

Margarito, to make a point with the public, challenged the legitimacy of De La Hoya's consideration of Williams by calling for the fight to happen. He told De La Hoya to accept a fight with Williams to show that he still has integrity - instead of moving forward with a possible fight with WBC lightweight champ Manny Pacquiao.

"I thought Oscar would stop lying by now!  Now he's trying to deceive the people into believing that he is considering Paul Williams as his next opponent.  I can't wait to hear what his excuse will be as to why he decided not to fight Paul Williams," Margarito said. "Oscar, all you’re doing is burying yourself into a deeper hole.  If I were you, I would take the Williams fight and hold onto whatever integrity you have left."

According to Goossen, Margarito is the one deceiving the fans by not accepting a unification rematch with Paul Williams, who won a decision over Margarito in 2007. Goossen says that Margarito should stop hunting for De La Hoya and focus his attention on trying to get a measure of revenge on Williams.

"I would like to ask when will Margarito stop trying to deceive the fans of the facts?  Stop worrying about who Oscar is going to fight and concentrate on Antonio Margarito.  In his days of excellence, Oscar did his thing and earned every penny doing so.  If I'm not mistaken, Paul Williams unanimously beat Antonio Margarito for his WBO belt last year.  After Margarito’s recent victory over Cotto, you would think he would look for some pay back on Williams rather than looking to every other less risky fighter to fight, including Oscar," Goossen said. 

"Williams doesn't need to prove his reign now as the "most feared fighter in the world" today since he already did that by beating Margarito. But instead, Williams looks for the biggest fights for himself, the fans and the sport. Williams is doing what the greats of yesteryear always did, look to get rid of anyone that wants to act as if they are the number-one fighter in their division." 

A few weeks ago, Goossen put a $4-million dollar guarantee on the table in an effort to make a rematch with Williams and Margarito a reality. Bob Arum [Margarito's promoter] never responded to Goossen's offer.

"Williams also now understands that even outrageous sums of money being thrown at another fighter doesn't always guarantee that you can drag someone into the ring, and Margarito is testament to that.  As we all may recall, Margarito recently turned down close to triple the amount of money he has ever been guaranteed, a $4 million dollar-plus offer to have his revenge bout against Williams," Goossen said. 

"Now as Margarito was trying to put Oscar on the spot with his anticipation of excuses, I couldn't help but think back to the unbelievable excuses being spit out from Margarito and his representatives on why the biggest welterweight bout to be made today, Williams-Margarito II, will never be made -  'I was jerked around' - 'I'll never do business with the Paul William's camp' - 'We wanted an immediate rematch and they wouldn't give us one' - 'They can wait in line now,' - and I saved the best for last, 'we don't need to fight Williams, people know we beat Paul Williams in a close fight!'

"Just thinking on that last one, since when is a unanimous decision victory for Williams a close fight? Just asking. If I were politely to give Margarito a little sound advice, I would simply say, keep quiet as to what Oscar will do and his excuses, and worry more about what you will do and your excuses. Fight the best or forever hold your peace."

Goossen says that he wouldn't blame De La Hoya for choosing a fight with Williams over a fight with Margarito, and not because he's Williams' promoter, but because he feels that Margarito will always play second to Williams until they fight for a second time to set the record straight.

"Make no mistake about it Antonio - if Oscar had to choose between a fight with you or Williams, your choice would be the correct one, Williams.  Williams beat you, which makes you number two no matter who has you ranked higher in the ratings," Goossen said. " Losing to the Celtics in the NBA World Championship doesn’t make the Lakers number one because they were the champions of their division. Ask them yourself.  If you want to "act" as if you’re number-one, then you are making the right move on not wanting to do your best to try to avenge your defeat to Williams."

"One Margarito representative recently said 'it’s the fans of the sport who are being disrespected with Oscar’s pursuit of a Pacquiao fight.' It might be interesting to hear from these same fans that Margarito’s team speak of - as to their disgust that their Mexican champion has a bucketful of lame excuses on why he doesn’t want to do everything possible to immediately beat the man who beat him?  It certainly isn't the lack of money being thrown at him."

Goossen says Margarito's harsh criticism of De La Hoya is not warranted because Oscar did what he had to do in his prime.

"Margarito again speaks without really giving it thought when he tells Oscar to hold onto his integrity.  Given the fact that whether I have a good relationship with Oscar or not, I certainly can’t accuse Oscar of not always looking for his biggest challenge when he was in his prime.  He's a superstar because he always took up the challenge.  For Margarito to question it, especially when you consider that whatever integrity Margarito believes is missing in Oscar, falls smack dab on his own lap and not on Oscar's. It opens up his own can of worms of integrity moving forward with his next fight."

"In the interim, we will keep Paul busy fighting anyone that is willing to step into the ring with him, which we have come to find out are very few."