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There's a Bruce Springsteen song called "Atlantic City" that goes a little something like this:
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready for a fight,
Gonna' see what them racket boys can do...
Gonna' be a rumble out on the promenade,
And the gamblin' commission's hangin' on by the skin of its teeth...
So put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City."
For those of you that haven't yet met Antonio Margarito, WBO welterweight champion of the world, be sure to meet him on December 2nd in Atlantic City. He might just be the best welterweight to hit the Jersey shore in over a decade, yet he plies his trade in near anonymity in what the great English boxing scribe Hugh McIlvanney calls "the hardest game".
When you first see Antonio Margarito, nothing tells you that he is the WBO welterweight champion of the world. There are no fancy gold chains, no limousines and no entourage full of yes man sycophants. Antonio Margarito is quiet, respectful and unassuming. He waits in the same long lines as everybody else, as I found out the morning after Oscar De La Hoya smashed Ricardo Mayorga like a pinata.
Leaving Las Vegas the morning after a big fight is a hectic affair, and if you're like everybody else your sole motivation in life becomes consumed with garnering a ride to McCarran International Airport so you can just go home.
I hit the streets early that Sunday morning and the lines had already began to form in front of the MGM Grand for the taxi ride to the airport. I happened to glance behind me and there was Antonio Margarito waiting along with the rest of us. So, in this day and age of high-paid, coddled athletes it was surprising that the generally regarded second best fighter in the world at 147-pounds was stuck in line with all the rest of the ham and eggers.
[details]
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready for a fight,
Gonna' see what them racket boys can do...
Gonna' be a rumble out on the promenade,
And the gamblin' commission's hangin' on by the skin of its teeth...
So put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City."
For those of you that haven't yet met Antonio Margarito, WBO welterweight champion of the world, be sure to meet him on December 2nd in Atlantic City. He might just be the best welterweight to hit the Jersey shore in over a decade, yet he plies his trade in near anonymity in what the great English boxing scribe Hugh McIlvanney calls "the hardest game".
When you first see Antonio Margarito, nothing tells you that he is the WBO welterweight champion of the world. There are no fancy gold chains, no limousines and no entourage full of yes man sycophants. Antonio Margarito is quiet, respectful and unassuming. He waits in the same long lines as everybody else, as I found out the morning after Oscar De La Hoya smashed Ricardo Mayorga like a pinata.
Leaving Las Vegas the morning after a big fight is a hectic affair, and if you're like everybody else your sole motivation in life becomes consumed with garnering a ride to McCarran International Airport so you can just go home.
I hit the streets early that Sunday morning and the lines had already began to form in front of the MGM Grand for the taxi ride to the airport. I happened to glance behind me and there was Antonio Margarito waiting along with the rest of us. So, in this day and age of high-paid, coddled athletes it was surprising that the generally regarded second best fighter in the world at 147-pounds was stuck in line with all the rest of the ham and eggers.
[details]
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