-Margarito & Rios Mock Roach; Fans & Media Turned off From Pacquiao vs. Margarito Bout?-
Even major upcoming boxing matches, like the Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito bout this Saturday, don’t always generate headlines in the mainstream media. However, Margarito’s recent viral video online, which has since been removed from YouTube, has been making waves and has been stirring up even more controversy for a fight that’s already somewhat filled with it.
The Margarito and Brandon Rios video, which shows them shaking and trembling with their hands, arms and heads, mocking Freddie Roach, who is well known to have Parkinson’s Disease, has been making the news cycle on all of the big shows. As an example, it was the first topic of discussion on Pardon The Interruption this afternoon, and also was mentioned on Around the Horn.
Everybody, not surprisingly, has been angered and turned off by the insults, taken to be way below the belt. At the final press conference today, Freddie Roach basically told Margarito, trainer Robert Garcia and Rios to go fu*k themselves. He said he would never talk to Garcia again, and that his apology was bogus and didn’t mean anything.
The question now becomes, will the Margarito and Rios video making fun of Freddie Roach turn off casual fans from tuning in to the PPV this weekend? Some media pundits have already said that they are no longer interested in the bout, and that they wouldn’t watch or attend.
But actually, the Margarito video making fun of Roach might have the opposite effect. It might bring more people into the affair, because it adds even more drama and intrigue to the outing. Everybody enjoys some legitimate controversy in an event, as well as opposing sides which actually have come to hate one another.
It’s not like anybody stopped buying Mike Tyson PPVs when he went on another rant, whether it was threatening to eat somebody’s children, or saying he would rape somebody until he loved him. To the contrary, everyone tuned in, and everyone got even more engaged and curious due to his outbursts.
If any fans or mainstream media members are outraged by anything, it should be the fact that Margarito is largely undeserving of this fight against Pacquiao, coming off the hand wrapping controversy and the TKO loss to Shane Mosley. He has been inactive since then, was denied a license in California and Nevada, and is fighting the pound for pound king for a title in a weight division in which he has no successful track record.
For Margarito, it’s another nail in the coffin of his tarnished reputation, but it’s nowhere near the sin he committed when he wore those illegal hand wraps into the ring. That’s likely the most unforgivable act in professional boxing today, and here he is, in a multi-million dollar showcase bout against the sport’s biggest and brightest star.
The Margarito and Rios video about Freddie Roach is despicable, but it shouldn’t change anyone’s view on the fight, and it isn’t out of the realm of what we experience in all areas of the sports world every day, not just in boxing. It was just a week ago when Kevin Garnett was in hot water because he said that an opposing player looked like a cancer patient. You might think a little bit less about Garnett, but I don’t think any Boston Celtics fans boycotted the next game.
