By Robert Morales

Longtime HBO broadcaster Larry Merchant on Tuesday spoke at length about Saturday's junior middleweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito. Unlike many, Merchant said he doesn't have a big problem with the fight being contested at a catch-weight of 150 pounds, four below the junior middleweight limit.

But for the life of him, Merchant said he can't understand why Pacquiao and his team would want to put Pacquiao at a disadvantage by agreeing to a fight at 150 when, as the man, Pacquiao could have gotten anything he wanted in the negotiations.

"I think Pacquiao is giving away something by fighting at a catch-weight because this is a weight too far for him, as far as I'm concerned," Merchant said Tuesday. "He is basically a natural 140-pounder who fights at welterweight and to ask him to fight at junior middleweight is a weight too far in general.

"And I don't know, frankly, why his side agreed to it. Why would they if they can dictate the terms of the fight? So that somebody could say he's won an eighth title? How many people are attracted to this fight because Pacquiao is going for another title? I don't think too many. There are so many titles that I don't even think more than one or two are meaningful anymore."

Merchant spoke in dumbfounded tones.

"I think in this fight he is handicapping himself," Merchant said of Pacquiao. "Why couldn't he fight at 147? Which would then make Margarito come down to 147, which is the weight he (Margarito) usually fought at. ... I don't have any particular problems in this fight. I just find myself wondering why in the world would Pacquiao do this?

"Why wouldn't he make his opponent suffer off those last three or four pounds, when it's an easy weight for him (Pacquiao) to make. Pacquiao is a guy who Freddie Roach once told me is the only fighter he has ever had who could eat a full breakfast and a full lunch right before the weigh-in. There are a lot of curious things about the weight here."

Margarito Undeserving of This Fight

Merchant pulled no punches during a telephone interview. Aside from the aforementioned catch-weight, he intimated it's rather mind-boggling that Margarito would even get a fight of this magnitude. And at first, he wasn't even talking about Margarito being fortunate to get a fight against boxing's pound-for-pound king after getting busted with illegal hand wraps prior to his January 2009 fight against "Sugar" Shane Mosley. 

"Why is Margarito even fighting for a junior middleweight title?" said Merchant, who is not working the fight. "When was the last time he won a big fight? He has been off for two years with the exception of one fight (in Mexico) against a journeyman (Roberto Garcia). How did he earn a shot at any title, much less at a weight he has never had a title at?"

Then the subject of the loaded hand wraps was broached, and Merchant unloaded with both barrels. 

"I sort of do," said Merchant, when asked if he had a problem with Margarito getting a high-profile fight after the Plaster of Paris scandal. "I mean, what he did is the single worst crime you can commit in boxing. And they've tried to downgrade it to kind an unintentional foul. He hit the guy below the belt, I'm sorry, and that bothers me. ... And it bothers me further that while Margarito denies he knew it - which I find very problematic given the fact that a baseball player knows if his bat is a quarter of an ounce off and a basketball player knows if the rim is a quarter of an inch off - that he has never even accepted responsibility.

"I've never heard him quoted anywhere where he said, 'I didn't know, but I should have known.' I've never heard him say anything about his trainer and manager or whoever supposedly did this."

Merchant said that when Mosley was found to have used steroids prior to his 2003 fight with Oscar De La Hoya, although he denied knowingly using them, he didn't deny that he should have known.

"And he was so upset about it, from his point of view, that he sued the two guys involved," Merchant said.

Merchant said because of all the reasons he has given, in his opinion Margarito does not warrant this title fight. But he knows why he's getting it.

"He's getting this shot for two reasons," Merchant said. "One, he is a Top Rank fighter."

Top Rank Inc., chairman Bob Arum presiding, promotes both Pacquiao and Margarito.

"Secondly, there was a point in time a couple of years ago when he was considered probably the biggest drawing card in the most important boxing audience, the Mexican and Mexican-American audience, in terms of revenue generated," Merchant said. "At that time he was a really rough, tough hombre and until Mosley came along he was considered the toughest guy on the block.

"Everybody is counting on the fact that his crowd-pleasing style will create a crowd-pleasing fight. And that could be right." 

Let Bygones Be Bygones

Finally, Merchant said, like it or not a Margarito win would go a long way in erasing the bad taste he left with the loaded-wraps episode.

"I mean, here is the irony," Merchant said. "He seems to believe, 'Look, if I can go out and perform well and win this fight, all will be forgiven.'

And it sports, it usually is. That's the way it is. There have been some famous athletes, including fighters, who have done some horrible things and as long as they won the game, it tended to be forgotten as, 'Boys will be boys.' "

Fellow Mexican Rips Margarito, Too

Carlos Palomino, of Los Angeles via Mexico, is a former welterweight world champion who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. He said Tuesday he was astonished that, considering what Margarito was caught trying to do, the state of Texas gave him a license to fight.

"I can't believe that he was licensed, first of all," Palomino said. "I don't care what he says, what his excuses are, he knew what was going on.

He is saying he didn't know. Blah, blah, blah. No fighter who has had his hands wrapped since he was a kid can tell me that someone is throwing something in your wraps without him knowing what he was doing.

"Just the fact he was licensed, to me, was surprising. He hurt (Miguel) Cotto pretty bad, but he could have killed him." 

There has only been speculation, nothing more, that Margarito's hands may have been doctored for his 11th-round technical knockout of Cotto in July 2008 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

"The same thing could have happened that happened to that kid (Billy Collins) in New York and that other guy (Luis Resto)," Palomino said.

"I'm surprised he got a license, and I'm surprised (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones is involved." 

In Palomino's mind, regardless of what Margarito does from here on out, his career will be tarnished.

"A lot of people think Margarito deserves a second chance and he kind of wants to rehabilitate his image," said Palomino, who currently trains at-risk youths. "No matter how many fights he wins from now on, I don't think his career can be rehabilitated in the eyes of the boxing public. He's going to be tainted for the rest of his life, like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire."

Palomino Wonders about 150 for Margarito

Having watched Margarito absorb tremendous punishment from Cotto without wavering much, Palomino initially figured there is no way Pacquiao can hurt Margarito, nor withstand the pressure Margarito will institute. Watching Margarito's preparation on HBO's 24/7 further convinced Palomino of that. That is until 24/7 recently depicted
Margarito weighing in at 154.

"Then they weighed Margarito on camera and he's 154 pounds and he looked to me like he didn't have one ounce to lose," Palomino said. "He was so cut. And I'm thinking to myself, 'If he has to take away another four pounds, he's going to have nothing left.' I was surprised they did that on camera.

"I don't know how he is going to find four more pounds. He is going to be dehydrated and weak."

Palomino said that at 154 - which is where he believes Pacquiao should fight Margarito if Pacquiao calls himself the best in the world - Margarito would beat Pacquiao.

"But if you have a rag doll in front of  you, you can pretty much do whatever you want," Palomino said. "Which is what happened with Oscar and Cotto. They were both dehydrated and not at full strength." 

Pacquiao took Cotto's welterweight title via 12th-round TKO in November 2009 at MGM Grand. The bout was contested at a catch-weight of 145, two under the limit. Pacquiao stopped De La Hoya after eight rounds of their welterweight fight in December 2008 at MGM Grand. De La Hoya had not fought at welterweight in nearly seven years and knowing the fight would not happen if he weighed more than 147 - as per Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach - De La Hoya went too far in his conditioning and weighed in at 145.

After that fight, Palomino said De La Hoya looked like he didn't a single carbohydrate in his system. 

Alvarez-N'dou in Mexico

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said his boss, Oscar De La Hoya, on Wednesday was on his way to Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico to formally announce the welterweight fight between ultra-popular Mexican Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KOs) and Lovemore N'dou (48-11-2, 31 KOs) of South Africa. Schaefer said the fight is a done deal and will take place Dec. 4 at a baseball stadium in the city of Veracruz.

Schaefer said he is still working on a deal for television, but "it is going to be televised in the U.S." 

N'dou is 39, as was Carlos Baldomir, Alvarez's most recent opponent in September.

Margarito Toughest for Williams

Paul Williams will challenge Sergio Martinez for his middleweight championship Nov. 20 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. It will be a rematch of a December 2009 fight at the same venue won by Williams via majority decision. It was a very rough fight, in which both fighters scored first-round knockdowns. But Williams recently told BoxingScene.com that fight with Martinez was not the roughest he has had.

"I don't think it was my most vicious," Williams said. "I would say it was probably the Margarito fight."

Williams was staggered in the 10th round of that July 2007 fight, then cut by a right cross in the 11th. He won a unanimous decision.

Speaking of his fight with Martinez, Williams was asked if he has made any adjustments in his training camp for the second go-round with the champion from Argentina.

"Everything is still the same," Williams said. "Ain't gotta do nothing special for this guy."

Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram and BoxingScene.com