Tweet
Yesterday, boxer Antonio Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, had their licenses revoked for at least one year by the California State Athletic Commission due to their role in the presence of hardened pieces, described by witnesses as “plaster-like-substances,” being found in Margarito’s wraps prior to his fight with Shane Mosley on January 24th.
Surprisingly, in the face of such a serious accusation, Margarito’s team offered nothing that resembled a credible defense. Chain of custody issues were raised due to the fact that once the su****ious pieces had been removed from Margarito’s wraps, Mosley’s trainer, ****m Richardson, took them to Mosley’s dressing room where they were handled by at least two other members of Mosley’s team, his lawyer and his physician.
But the idea that one of those people may have tampered with the pieces somehow after the fact was rendered pointless when Margarito’s trainer, Capetillo, all but admitted guilt, saying that he had acted alone and that Margarito had no knowledge whatsoever that the substances in question had been placed in his wraps. For his part, Capetillo said that the use of the hardened pieces was “an innocent mistake.” Though he was anything but clear on how this might have been, the gist of his explanation seemed to be that he grabbed the wrong gauze from his trainer’s bag and then “mistakenly” inserted two plastered pieces that were wet and hardening into a cast-like shell into the pads on each of Margarito’s hands.
As could be expected, the California Commission members found no merit in this explanation. They voted 7-0 to revoke each man’s license for at least a year.
Many today are writing that this punishment is too lenient for a crime that essentially boils down to attempted assault. But if you look closer at what transpired yesterday, a seed has been laid for a different trial of Margarito and Capetillo, and a much, much harsher penalty.
During yesterday’s proceedings, deputy attorney general Karen Chapelle, working for the prosecution, tried to raise the issue of Margarito’s fight with Miguel Cotto last July as evidence in the case, saying that Margarito also had loaded his gloves when he faced Cotto and gotten away with it.
Predictably, the Commission refused to hear anything regarding the Cotto fight, because it took place in Las Vegas, out of their jurisdiction. For their purposes, whether Margarito did or did not load his wraps against Cotto has no bearing on what transpired prior to the Mosley fight.
But for an outside observer, not to mention Miguel Cotto himself, that question has enormous significance for the larger issue at stake here. Margarito and his trainer received a year suspension from the CSAC for what amounts to an attempt to cheat, or if you want to be plain about it, an attempt to commit assault with a deadly weapon.
But if Margarito’s wraps were loaded in the Cotto fight, then the word “attempt” is out of the equation. As all boxing fans will vividly recall, he beat Cotto to a bloody pulp that night.
One has to wonder why Karen Chapelle even would bother to bring up the Cotto issue yesterday when she knew as well as anyone that it would not be admissible in a California hearing. Is it possible that she has evidence that Margarito wore loaded wraps in the Cotto fight, and alluded to it merely to indicate as much to the world at large? Because, to my mind, merely the fact that the Margarito/Cotto bout was raised yesterday as a precedent by the prosecution, along with the ultimate verdict in the case, leads me to believe that Cotto now has the right to demand a hearing into the matter by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, such that whatever it is that Karen Chapelle or anyone else knows about the issue can be heard and judged in the proper jurisdiction.
In the end, this is the very ugly fact of the matter: A California deputy attorney general yesterday inferred that Margarito’s wraps were loaded when he fought Miguel Cotto, and it seems highly improbable that she would do so without holding some legitimate proof of that accusation. If she has that proof, if what she said is true, then Antonio Margarito deserves to go to jail. Should you think I’m being an alarmist and overstating the case, you might want to refer to the sad, horrible tale of Billy Collins and Luis Resto.
Comment