Antonio Margarito brought shame to himself by openly mocking the physical handicaps of Freddie Roach who suffers from slurred speech and shaking as a consequence of his Parkinson’s disease. Margarito made the insults against the revered Roach in a video interview which was conducted by AOL Fanhouse’s Elie Sechback. Margarito’s friend and stablemate Brandon Rios also participated in the mocking of Roach.
War of words and fight-week tensions are expectedly high this week as we are only days away from the colossal Pacquiao-Margarito superfight on Saturday night in Cowboys Stadium, but there’s no defending these actions by Margarito.
In the history of some of boxing’s other ugly moments, such as hearing one champ call his opponent “a gorilla”, or another fighter equate a fight to “a gang rape”, now Margarito has taken psychological warfare to a disturbingly new low.
A great event with such a class act champion as Manny Pacquiao in the grand theater of Cowboys Stadium has certainly now been besmirched by the actions of Margarito who quickly issued an apology, only after experiencing the backlash of public and media condemnation.
The good guy vs. bad guy angles for this showdown could not be more further defined than they are now.
And the good side always wins.
Expect Margarito to suffer an even greater backlash of punishment from the wrathful fists of Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night – in a manner which is likely to be as convincing and decisive as anything we have seen in 2010.
