By David A. Avila
LOS ANGELES-Packed inside the historic Beverly Hills Hotel where icons past and present wine, dine and circulate, a media horde showed up to the Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito press conference on Tuesday.
The Filipino press out-numbered the Latino press.
I wonder if that’s a sign of what to expect.
Boxing fans will find out on Saturday Nov. 13 when Pacman meets Margarito at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, Texas for the vacant WBC junior middleweight world title. Top Rank is promoting the clash.
Bob Arum, president of Top Rank, blasted the press for printing accusations and painting the upcoming bout as ridiculous because of Margarito’s suspension by California.
“There wasn’t a shred of evidence,” said Arum, a former federal attorney during the John F. Kennedy Administration.
Despite Arum’s claims that Margarito was blameless, tell that to Pacquiao, who stated that Margarito knew that there was something in his gloves.
No matter, the fight is on.
“I’m here again,” said Pacquiao who’s become accustomed to the media blitzkrieg that takes place for all of his bouts. “I believe Margarito has the ability to give a good show.”
Just don’t ask him if Margarito knew that former trainer Javier Capetillo was loading his gloves with an illegal insert.
Margarito, who coils at the mention of whether or not he knew about the insert, must be tiring profusely upon listening to the same questions over and over again. I know I’m tired of it.
“I’ve been waiting for this fight a long time,” Margarito said. “Everything that has happened is in the past. It’s time to show everyone that I’m still good.”
Also present at the swanky hotel was new Mexican hero Giovanni Segura fresh off his knockout win over Puerto Rico’s Ivan Calderon last weekend.
Segura still had slight swelling from his eight rounds with the former Pound for Pound fighter called “Iron Boy.”
“I’m an Aztec warrior like Margarito. We don’t surrender,” said Segura who now has both the WBA and WBO junior flyweight world titles. “We just fight until the end.”
Hopefully those words prove prophetic and Margarito and Pacman’s fight turns out to be one of the best fights of 2010.
After the conference ended people continued to mill around the hotel that once housed many of the late Howard Hughes’s girlfriends.
Today the hotel housed a boxing media blitz.
Source: thesweetscience.com
