After Hours Deliberating, NYSAC Grants Margarito his License
And the Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito rematch saga continues. The fight has been in the news nonstop over the past week, but not for the usual pre-fight reasons. (Of course, there are plenty of reasons to talk about this fight to begin with, none more important than the combustible mixture of their sensational first meeting, Margarito’s hand-wrapping scandal and the genuine hatred these two guys seem to have for another).
Instead, the topic of conversation has been, will Cotto vs. Margarito II even take place? If it does, will it take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City as planned, or will Margarito be denied his license leaving Top Rank scrambling to find a new locale?
UPDATE: 6 pm Eastern, Tuesday the 22nd:
After scheduling an open meeting at 3pm, and after spending about two hours in a private “executive session”, the NYSAC finally came out with a verdict and granted Antonio Margarito his license to fight in the state of New York. That means that Cotto vs. Margarito II is still a go for Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, December 3rd.
That also means that all the talk of Cotto not being willing to fight anywhere but in New York, and the repercussions of that, is all a moot point now. Fans with their tickets and travel plans don’t have to worry, and all of the undercard fighters and everybody else who was affected by all of this can continue on. Finally.
The lingering questions will be how this impacted the training and focus of both fighters and their teams, but more importantly, how serious the health risks are for Margarito in terms of his eyesight.
Original story continues below…
Cotto and Bob Arum held a conference call early Tuesday afternoon to discuss the fight. It was an odd choice of timing, considering that the final NYSAC verdict was due to come in later in the afternoon. Therefore, everything was still up in the air and the call was filled with ambiguity and no news to provide.
When asked, Cotto said and then reiterated on several occasions that he would fight in New York, as planned, or he wouldn’t fight at all. In other words, if Margarito doesn’t get his license then the fight is off.
Potential sites for Cotto-Margarito II to land outside of New York had included Denver, Colorado, Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas, El Paso, Texas and the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, to name a few.
After Cotto repeated his stance that he wouldn’t fight out of New York, Arum got pretty worked up and ended the call immediately. Uh-oh.
You can’t blame Cotto for his stance on this issue. He has been preparing for a fight, and now he’s dealing with even more distractions. He is fully licensed and healthy, and ready to go, and has never been involved with the controversy that Margarito has. The fight is fueled by him – he has the higher status, fighting in New York those are his fans paying for the tickets, and he has more to lose – and he’s already essentially giving Margarito a huge payday despite the fact that he feels he’s a criminal who cheated against him in the ring.
So why should Cotto deal with this and just blindly follow along?
Cotto of course would also be losing out on a huge payday if he follows through on his threat and refuses to fight outside of New York though. He was guaranteed $5 million for the fight, and that’s a lot to surrender.
There are other variables at play here besides the NYSAC’s final decision and Cotto’s hard stance. Will Top Rank sweeten Cotto’s pot and guarantee him more money? What does Cotto’s contract say about his right of refusal, so to speak, in this situation? Is there anyway to scrap the pay-per-view but keep the rest of the card in New York, featuring other great fights like Pawel Wolak vs. Delvin Rodriguez II? Will Cotto take on a replacement opponent?
All of this, and there have been over 14,000 tickets sold, for a $2.6 million gate, and the fight is supposed to be just a week and a half away. And it might not happen. Or it might not happen in New York.
Pathetic stuff here, and everyone involved – the fighters, their teams, the fans and the sport – comes out a loser.
