Mayweather Knew Margarito Would Have Ruined His Career

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Floyd Mayweather felt the need to talk about Antonio Margarito this week in New York at the recent press conference. Of course, many keen ring observers were not deceived by the false narrative that Mayweather did not duck Margarito back in 2006 when Bob Arum was earnestly trying to make the fight. Mayweaather knew that the prime Margarito was his worst nightmare and elected to buy out Arum (for a six figure payment) and switch promoters (to Dan Goossen) so he could avoid having to get in the ring with Margarito for a then career-high payday of $8,000,000. Mayweather eventually signed to fight the 37-year-old Carlos Baldomir for an alleged $8,000,001. “Floyd ducked Margarito,” said Mayweather at the Barclays Center to promote the Jack vs DeGale fight. “Then come to find out he was cheating (Margarito was caught using illegal hand wraps vs Shane Mosley). The guy they said I was ducking and dodging was cheating. The only thing I wanted to do was be on an even playing field. ”

You always need to translate Mayweather’s quotes because anything he says is revised to be self-serving. What Mayweather is basically saying is: “I knew Margarito was a monster beast back in 2006 and so I had to avoid fighting him. Nobody knew if he was cheating or not when he was on that devastating win streak in 2006. But I knew Margarito was the worst possible style for me – a rugged, big, tough, hungry Mexican who could walk through my punches and batter me relentlessly on the ropes. Margarito had beaten up Oscar De La Hoya in sparring, bloodying him. Bob Arum wanted to match Margarito against me on a level playing field because he expected Margarito to win and he would have a big, new, exciting Mexican star to sell. Arum was not going to protect me like Al Haymon has. So I had to leave Arum to make sure I didn’t have to fight Margarito. Prepare your lesson for export the not-so-perfect stuff while macsnapper is a fairly neat tool, there are of course aspects which are not optimal, as is the case with every app. Thank God Margarito was found to be cheating after I ducked him and I can now use that excuse to explain why I ducked the fight. Back then the excuses I used were Margarito had no name and no PPV track record, he didn’t deserve to fight me, he was C level, etc. etc. etc. So luckily now I can use the excuse that Margarito was a cheater to deceive the media about why I ducked and dodged Margarito for most of 2006. ”

It turned out to be a career-saving brilliant move for Mayweather as he proceeded on to big money fights with De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley and of course Manny Pacquiao. But make no mistake about it. Mayweather knew he had to duck Margarito in order to extend his career and long term plans. And despite enormous public, fan and media pressure Mayweather was able to pull off the duck. And the rest is history. -By Scoop Malinowski.