Margarito's Slap On The Wrist For Bad Wrap-Job

“Maybe boxing can borrow an asterisk from baseball.” Bert Sugar on Margarito Controversy (ESPN Friday Night Fights, February 13, 2009)

The Tijuana Tornado has been the subject of a torrent of unfavorable coverage in the press and in boxing forums world-wide lately. At the same time, baseball’s getting back into the big bad spotlight with A-Rod’s juicing scandal.

We are innocent until proven guilty in this country, and the California authorities who laid down a year suspension on Margarito and his trainer decided 7-0 that they were both guilty.

Yet, Margarito can still box in Mexico? What’s the point of the light punishment if the guilt is pronounced enough to garner a 7-0 vote? Yeah, he didn’t bite anyone’s ear off, but now you really have to wonder.

How long has this been going on?

The whole thing stinks, and I hope we do not have to wait decades for a true confession. Fact is stranger than fiction, and this kind of scenario has actually unfolded before with far more brutal consequences.

“Irish” Billy Collins, Jr. did not live to hear it, but his plaster-handed opponent confessed to the mauling of the young prospect only recently, 25 years after the fact:

Truth Revealed Behind Assault of “Irish” Billy Collins Jr

EGREGIOUS BOXING CRIME TO BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT

Unfortunately, the Margarito incident also begs the question: who else has been able to get away with this technique? Could this be boxing’s new scandal, and is the hand wrapping process now suspect across the board?

Is this not so new method of cheating making a comeback in boxing? The hand wrapping of fighters will undoubtedly undergo much more scrutiny across the sport as a result of this situation, and only time will tell if this trend continues.

Unfortunately, we know already that the ultimate cost can be a human life.