By Rick Reeno

Former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito is throwing his name in the Oscar De La Hoya sweepstakes.

Margarito is tentatively scheduled to fight Zab Judah in his next fight. According to my recent conversation with Bob Arum of Top Rank, the fight is slated land on May 3 with Showtime televising. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Margarito-Judah will move to another date, especially after De La Hoya announced that he's fighting on the same day with HBO televising the event on their regular network.

Additionally, Judah is having issues with his promoters, Prize Fight Boxing, and the promotional dispute may prevent the fight with Margarito from being finalized. Judah is claiming the status of a free agent, and Prize Fight has proof of a valid, legally binding contract. Should the fight with Judah fall apart, Margarito is willing to fight anyone.

The "Tijuana Tornado" is very open to fighting De La Hoya at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca, which seats 130,000. Golden Boy Promotions CEO, Richard Schaefer, said the venue is one of the frontrunners to host De La Hoya's next fight. De La Hoya is planning to use the May bout as a tune-up for a September rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. The three fighters currently in the running for De La Hoya's next fight are Steve Forbes, IBF 140-pound champ Paulie Malignaggi and Dmitriy Salita.

"I want to fight on May 3 and De La Hoya wants to fight on May 3. Let's have an all-Mexican battle on Cinco de Mayo weekend. I'm a a real Mexican, I'll fight anyone. If Oscar wants to show that he's a real Mexican fighter, he will accept the fight," Margarito said.

Besides his desire to land a fight with De La Hoya, which I'm 99.9% sure will never happen, Margarito's manager, Sergio Diaz, tells BoxingScene.com that his fighter is willing to move up to junior-middleweight to fight WBC champion Vernon Forrest.

"Oscar wants to fight junior welterweights and blow them up to junior middleweight. Margarito will fight him at 154-pounds. He'll even come in at 147 and Oscar can weigh 154 or whatever he wants," Diaz said. "I see Vernon Forrest talking all this trash that nobody will fight him. Margarito will move up to 154-pounds and fight him. He's always wanted the green belt. Margarito will fight anyone."