Welcome back, Margacheato?

Margarito poised to receive license By Dan Rafael ESPN.com More than a year after having his license revoked for attempting to fight with illegal pads coated with a plaster-like substance inside his hand wraps, disgraced former welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito will attempt a comeback -- as long as he is licensed by the Texas commission -- Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com on Wednesday night. Arum said the indication he has received from Texas regulators is positive and that Margarito will be granted a license. If Texas gives him one, Arum said Margarito will fight in the co-feature on the March 13 Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey HBO PPV card at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. So sure that Margarito will be licensed, Top Rank on Wednesday signed Carson Jones to fight him. "Tony has applied for a license and we're optimistic they'll grant it to him," Arum said. Bobby Dobbs, Jones' manager, told ESPN.com that Jones signed a contract for the fight. He said the contract contained no language regarding the possibility of Margarito not being licensed. "Just a standard bout agreement," said Dobbs, who added that it would be a scheduled 10-round fight at a maximum weight of 155 pounds. Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) was considered the world's No. 1 welterweight when he put his title on the line against Shane Mosley on Jan. 24, 2009, in Los Angeles, where a Staples Center-record crowd of 20,820 turned out for the fight. Mosley wound up dominating Margarito and scoring a ninth-round knockout victory for a major upset. However, there was also considerable drama in the minutes leading up to fight when Naazim Richardson, Mosley's trainer, objected to the way Margarito's left hand had been wrapped. When the wrap was cut off and checked, California officials found an illegal pad that had been coated with a plaster-like substance inside it, something that had escaped notice of the commission inspector overseeing the hand-wrapping process. Then Margarito's other hand wrap was cut off and checked, and it too contained an identical illegal pad. At a hearing three weeks later, Margarito's plea of ignorance was rejected by the California State Athletic Commission, which revoked his license, as well as that of trainer Javier Capetillo, on a 7-0 vote. The revocation effectively banned them from boxing in the United States for at least a year. After a year, both are eligible to be licensed again, but with no guarantee that they would receive one. However, there is nothing that precludes Texas or any other commission in the United States from licensing Margarito once the year is up. Arum said the Association of Boxing Commissions, a non-profit organization that represents 46 state commissions and several Native American tribal boxing commissions, has sent a letter to the Texas commission stating that it is allowed to license Margarito if it so desires once the one-year minimum punishment from California is up. "We cleared everything with the ABC and we're hopeful that the Texas commission will approve his application, which we're very optimistic about," Arum said. "The ABC had to give the OK that an athletic commission is free to license Margarito if they so feel and that the California revocation does not prevent them from doing it in 2010, which it might have in 2009 . Texas has a letter from the ABC. Now it's up to the Texas commission." After Margarito had his license revoked, Arum threatened to put him in a fight in his native Mexico, where boxing commissions are not under any obligation to adhere to disciplinary action doled out in the United States. In fact, some boxing officials in Mexico openly campaigned for Margarito to fight there while his license was revoked in the U.S. "But that was in the emotion of the moment," Arum said. "We didn't fight in Mexico. We waited the year by design and we're hopeful the commission sees that he sat out." Dobbs said Top Rank was "adamant" with him that there would be no problem with Margarito getting his license back. In order to take the fight with Margarito, Dobbs said Jones turned down a fight with Freddy Hernandez, which would have been televised on Showtime's "ShoBox" series in February. Jones (24-7-1, 15 KOs) scored an eye-opening third-round knockout victory against previously unbeaten Tyrone Brunson on Dec. 4. It is unclear if Capetillo will also be licensed by Texas.