Antonio Margarito doesn’t care what others think

By Lance Pugmire

Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK

At this point, Antonio Margarito realizes he’s not going to change anyone’s opinion about whether he knew there was plaster inside his hand wraps before a title fight in 2009 — which led to him being suspended from boxing.

If fans wants to think of him as a “criminal,” as his Saturday night opponent Miguel Cotto does, then so be it.

“Here comes a criminal, open the doors for the criminal,” Margarito said Wednesday, his first words upon being introduced at a Madison Square Garden news conference for his junior-middleweight title bout against Cotto. “They say I’m not a gentleman, not a great person. I don’t know why they say that.”

Those closest to the “Tijuana Tornado” say Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs) doesn’t care much about what others think.

The controversy dates to January 2009, when the California State Athletic Commission removed plaster-caked inserts from inside Margarito’s hand wraps before his welterweight title defense against Shane Mosley at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Margarito denied knowing his gloves were loaded, but his license was revoked for a year.

Some in the boxing community also wondered if Margarito had used loaded gloves five months earlier when he knocked out then-unbeaten champion Cotto in their July 2008 bout.

Certainly, Margarito is likely to be booed unmercifully Saturday at Madison Square Garden by supporters by of the popular Puerto Rican Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs), who is defending his WBA junior-middleweight title.

Margarito, 33, said he is healthy and expects to beat Cotto, 31, again. Margarito says a win in their rematch will prove that his 11th-round knockout of Cotto in 2008 wasn’t spoiled by loaded gloves.

“He’ll feel my power,” Margarito said. “I fight clean. Cotto will see that. I’ll impose my strength on him.”