By Lem Satterfield
Robert Garcia, trainer for Antonio Margarito, believes his side is winning the war of words with Team Pacquiao. During most of the pre-fight promotions, trainer Freddie Roach is usally showering Manny Pacquiao's opponents with verbal jabs. This time around, Roach is receiving an unusual amount of verbal fire from Team Margarito, which includes unbeaten lightweight contender Brandon Rios.
During a recent interview, Roach's temper erupted over a scene from HBO's 24/7 series, where Margarito and trainer, Robert Garcia, mocked the handwraps controversy by placing a large cinder block on Margarito's hand as Garcia pretended to wrap the fighter in preparation for sparring.
"When you're caught doing something, you don't make fun of it," said Roach to FanHouse. "In my mind, to do that, and get caught, it's like, you should be guilty. And if proven guilty, then it's attempted murder."
"Listen, boxing is our sport, and if he's [Margarito] going to put Plaster of Paris in his hands, and he's making jokes about it? I think Margarito's a f*****g a**hole to be honest about it, and we're going to make him eat his words."
Garcia is not bothered by Roach's allegations. According to Garcia, his side didn't start the problem. He blames Roach and Pacquiao for being the instigating parties of the ongoing verbal war between the two camps.
"What it looks like is that we're getting into their heads a little bit, now. Freddie Roach started out trying to play games, and now, everything is turning around. Freddie can say whatever he wants, but they're the ones who started that whole thing any way," said Garcia.
"You know, on 24/7, Manny was saying, 'how could he not know?' And he was making those faces and closing his eyes like he was a fighter who was not going to watch his hands being wrapped. We were just making jokes in response to Manny making fun of Tony on 24/7."
"That was how Manny tried to make it look -- like Tony knew something about the wraps. You know, Tony's been trying to tell everyone that he didn't know. The bottom line is that we were just doing what they did, you know, and getting back at them. So, now, it seems like it is starting to work."
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.
