By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former world welterweight champion Antonio Margarito can apply for a license to fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.
However, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer informed BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, that it “would be Margarito’s burden to show he should be issued a Nevada license.”
Kizer said Margarito will also have to show that his “California license revocation does not preclude him from competing in Nevada.”
The well-known and respected NSAC executive director pointed out “it would be a heavy burden.”
World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman claimed in an overseas telephone conversation from his home in Mexico that the California State Athletic Commission was made up of non-boxing people and they had made a terrible mistake in revoking the license of Margarito after it was discovered that his hand-wraps contained a substance believed to be plaster-of-paris which hardens when it gets wet.
The Commission also revoked the license of his chief corner man Javier Capetillo who wrapped Margarito’s hands for his ill-fated title defense against Shane Mosley on January 24.
Sulaiman argued that “no boxer is responsible for the taping” pointing out that the fighter merely puts up his hands and “many times the boxers are talking to the people” in the dressing room.
The WBC president said the people of Mexico felt the decision was “outrageous” and smacked of “discrimination.”
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who was outraged by the Commission’s action publicly thanked Sulaiman for what he categorized as his “forthright and compelling statement” adding that president Sulaiman was one hundred percent correct in stating that Margarito should not be punished “since he was totally unaware of the improper bandaging.”
Arum said the Commission hearing “established Margarito’s lack of knowledge and innocence “ even as he charged that the punishment was “based on the theory that the boxer is the captain of his team and is responsible for any wrongdoing of his trainer or any of his cornermen.”
The Los Angeles Times had quoted Commissioner Dr. Christopher Giza as telling Margarito “when you’re the top dog, you bear some responsibility for your team.”
