It has been quite the rollercoaster the past 72 hours regarding the
rematch between WBA junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto and Antonio
Margarito, scheduled to take place at Madison Square Garden in New
York. The fight will still come off; the question now is does it stay
in the Big Apple after the New York State Athletic Commission ruled on
Friday that a neutral doctor (approved by both the state commission and
Top Rank) must examine the surgically repaired right eye of Margarito?
In the wake of his loss last November to Manny Pacquiao, Margarito,
who suffered a fractured orbital bone and other injuries to his eye,
was eventually operated on by the noted Dr. Alan Crandall, director of
the Moran Eye Institute in Utah. Margarito underwent surgery to his
cataract and a new lens was implemented.
So now, Margarito and his team are on standby.
“We’re actually still all unsure about this,” said his manager,
Sergio Diaz, on Friday afternoon, who just got back
from Mexico yesterday where Margarito has set up his training camp.
“We’re trying to work something out. Antonio is not in California. He’s
not in the United States. He’s not in the country. He’s in Mexico. He’s
in full training so it makes it difficult to pull a fighter out at this
point in time of his training and ask him to leave and fly for an
ophthalmology exam. So we’re trying to meet somewhere in the middle
where a New York ophthalmologist can go to Houston and Antonio flies to
Houston. Or anywhere just so we can meet closer to Mexico City because
Mexico City flights, you’re talking about a good six-hour flight to Utah
and then flying to New York, we’re talking another five hours, getting
an exam and then flying back to Mexico. He loses that day of training
and he’s cutting weight still, then the jet lag and being in the plane
for ten hours. It’s really difficult.”
According to Bob Arum, “When we started this process, we were asked
how was the eye and I said that he had been operated on by Dr.
Crandall. The cataract got removed. Crandall has given me a letter
saying he’s fit to fight, etc. and [Melvina Lathan, Chairperson of the
NYSAC] tells everyone there’s no issues and so forth. Then in the
beginning of October, the ophthalmologist from the New York commission
calls and questions Dr. Crandall as far as what he did and so forth and
suggests this or that. So we called Margarito; he goes back to see
Crandall. Crandall checks out what they wanted; everything is fine.”
Diaz went to see Dr. Crandall back in October.
"We were asked to perform three tests on Antonio. Dr. Crandall had
already performed two,” explained Diaz. “So we were asked to fly to Utah
to get the third exam performed on Antonio. We had the exam done. We
saw the retinal specialist. He saw Antonio, told us what we’ve been
hearing all along, that he’s fine. The retina’s great. The eye is
stable. Everything is good, that he can continue with his career.”
However, that didn’t appease the state of New York because,
according to Arum, “Then we got a letter from [the NYSAC’s Dr. Barry]
Jordan saying we were disqualified from fighting because [Margarito] had
cataract surgery. What was your doctor talking to Crandall about from
the get-go if he’s disqualified?! Everybody knew he had cataract surgery.”
Diaz says that all the paperwork and filings were taken care of
well in advance of this card. “Of course, we actually dotted the I’s,
crossed the T’s. We knew we had to do this. We knew if we had to face
anything, we wanted to face it early. That’s why we took care of
everything early.” As for how training was going up in the Otomi
Mountains, sparring the likes of Omar Henry, J’Leon Love, Jesus
Soto-Karass and Sebastian Lujan, the manager stated, “Those are tough,
tough professionals. We didn’t pick guys that weren’t going to not hit
Antonio. The eye has always been a concern but we’re training for a
tough fight and Antonio, I asked him how he felt. He said, ‘I feel
good.’ ‘Anything with the eye?’ He said, ‘Absolutely not, Sergio.’”
After what has been a turbulent last few days, Arum seemed pretty confident.
“I think everything is going to work out OK,” the promoter said via
cell phone from Houston, where he’s staging tonight’s bout between
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Peter Manfredo Jr. “He’ll be approved by this
other ophthalmologist because Crandall wouldn’t have approved him if it
wasn’t true. So he’s going to be able to fight.”
Top Rank is just a couple thousand tickets away from a complete
sell-out at the Garden but just in case, they are working on contingency
plans.
“We have five states with buildings because of the NBA lockout ready to go,” said Arum.
