The 'Tijuana Tornado' Storms Into Training Camp
By Steve Kim
Last week, while Antonio Margarito was crisscrossing the country on the national press tour to promote his July 26th welterweight showdown with Miguel Cotto, a rarity was occurring back home. A freak winter thunderstorm would have tornadoes raging through Southern California last week.
Toto, tornadoes aren't just in Kansas.
On Wednesday, 'The Tijuana Tornado' would make his way back to the Montebello PAL gym to begin preparations for the biggest fight of his life, which was just 59 days away.
"I did notice it," he would say through his manager Sergio Diaz of the surprisingly inclement weather he left behind last week. "When I got back from the tour I was watching the news, I was surprised with all that was happening."
Before he could begin the physical preparations for the most anticipated fight of the summer months, there was the small chore of actually promoting it. Beginning in Mexico City, he would then head off with Cotto and the Top Rank staff to Los Angeles, New York and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Stuff like this is old-hat for Cotto, who has headlined major pay-per-view cards in the past. As usual, he handled his obligations with his trademark stoic professionalism. He's been there and done that. For Margarito, who's yearned for years to be involved in events of this magnitude, there was a sense of excitement.
"I'm proud to be involved in a fight of this magnitude. The people treated me well; in fact, when I went to Puerto Rico, the people accepted me," he would say. "You had a couple of them that were booing but I told them, 'This is going to be a good fight. I'm really going to be ready and I'm going to put on a good show.' But everything was positive."
This event seems to have captured the imagination of at least the hardcore fan, and the media seems to have picked up on just how good this clash could be. To many pundits and observers, it's everything that Mayweather-De La Hoya II isn't.
"I knew this event was going to be big," said Margarito, "but I want to give thanks to Bob Arum. Bob Arum has taken this fight to a different level, made it even bigger than what it was probably going to be. He's put in a lot of promotion, he hasn't stopped. The rivalry between Puerto Rico and Mexico is big and it's just going to be a better event."
It's a heady time for Margarito, who had for so long been on the fringes of mainstream success. Now, he'll be the focus of an HBO 'Countdown' show, and for the very first time, will grace the cover of Ring Magazine, still a greatly cherished honor for any prizefighter. For the next two months, Margarito and Cotto will be the focus of the boxing universe.
"We take everything in stride," says Diaz, who admits they have never experienced anything of this particular magnitude. "Antonio says he can't even walk down the street near his house because people are attracted to him. But he loves this. If there are a thousand people out there waiting for him, he's going to sign a thousand autographs. He doesn't like to cut anything short. He likes to keep everybody happy because he knows those are the ones who actually buy the tickets. Those are the people who pay him."
On this particular day, Margarito would get his training camp started by hitting the pads with his trainer Javier Capetillo for six rounds, then a round or two on both the heavy and speed bag, before finishing things up with abdominal work. Sparring won’t begin for another two weeks.
"I was very anxious to begin my training. I was training before that in Tijuana but the week that we were doing the press tour, I didn't train and it kept crossing my mind, 'I need to get back home and get back to training,'" said Margarito, who was well aware that Cotto shook out at the gym during the New York portion of the press tour. "But I'm glad I'm here and I'm glad the fight’s going to be here pretty soon."
Needless to say, motivation will not be a problem.
"I'm very, very excited to be involved in something this big. I'm excited for the event and I'm excited for everything that's going to come after my victory," he says.
Which of course, remains to be seen, but this much is clear - after years of being just a supporting player within boxing and his own promotional firm, this is Margarito's one and only shot at becoming the type of fighter that headlines a marquee.
Diaz admits as much.
"When we were out in New York, that's what I had spoken about. I was telling the media, 'Antonio struggled to get up that mountain, struggled to where he's at right now. We don't blame anybody, we know Top Rank was out there trying to make big fights for Antonio. But it's difficult to get people to fight him. We know that if they fight Antonio it might be the last fight. Whereas if they fight someone else, they get two or three more fights down the road.'
"But we're taking it like that; it's do-or-die. Antonio wins, he goes big. If he loses, we're going to be back to the bottom and struggling to get back where we're at right now. We might not even get back here, anymore."
MUST READ
I highly recommend everyone read Thomas Hauser's latest work on Secondsout.com, 'HBO: 2008' which takes a look inside the game’s most influential and powerful network.
Sources tell me that HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg was so dismayed by the article and the internal leaks within his own company that he had a meltdown of Three Mile Island proportions at a staff meeting that took place on Wednesday. He vowed that he would sniff out these moles and vanquish them.
But then I was told that if Greenburg actually did that, he would basically be left, "With nobody but Kevin Flaherty." More than just a few folks talk to Hauser over there - even though there's an edict for them not to. Just who are his 'deep throats'?