When Giovani Segura walked to the ring on Saturday night for his fight with Juanito Rubillar, he was led by his trainer, which is the norm. One of his biggest cheerleaders was another fighter who worked with that trainer, a former world champion. Again, pretty typical.
When the trainer in question is Javier Capetillo and the fighter in question is Antonio Margarito, however, typical is thrown out the window. In modern boxing, Capetillo and Margarito are, to quote the eloquent Rent Boy from Trainspotting, “the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking earth.”
And they’re not even Scottish, Margarito and Capetillo. They’re just thugs.
“Thug” is a simple word, blunt and to the point, and so perhaps entirely inappropriate to the complexities surrounding the discovery of Plaster of Paris in Margarito’s gloves prior to his January welterweight title fight with Shane Mosley. I gave plenty of thought to the word, though, and ultimately I consider it apt.
“Cheater” was the first word that came to mind, but there is a line between cheating to gain an edge in sport and loading gloves to put another man’s life at risk. Cheating is ultimately a natural byproduct of the competitive instinct, the reason that sports have long and complex rulebooks that require constant updates and enforcement.
Cheating is, in fact, common in every sport, though it generally consists of merely bending the rules, usually when the referee or official is compromised or out of position. All cheaters are not created equal; if they were, I would hold fighters like Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins the same contempt I hold Capetillo and Margarito.
I don’t, because Holyfield and Hopkins use questionable tactics that are nonetheless within the realm of the sport. They might hit you a little low once or twice with a body blow or catch you with their head or an elbow on the inside, but low blows and headbutts and elbows happen, both on purpose and accidentally, in nearly every fight, and therefore exist in a gray area.
Plaster of Paris doesn’t just happen. Loaded gloves don’t just happen. I’ve never seen an opponent in a Holyfield or Hopkins fight look like Miguel Cotto looked after his war with Margarito in July of 2008 from an elbow or a headbutt. I don’t have proof that Margarito loaded his gloves against Cotto, but I have DVDs of Margarito’s fight with Cotto and Margarito’s fight with Mosley and I have eyes. I have a California state boxing commission suspension of Capetillo and Margarito that tells me that they went into the fight with Shane Mosley intending to load Margarito’s gloves with rock and pound Mosley until he crumbled.
I like Giovani Segura. He’s a fun fighter to watch. When I see Capetillo and Margarito in his corner, while still under suspension in the United States (Segura fought in Mexico), I can’t help but think about him a little differently. Maybe if someone – Margarito, Capetillo (unlikely), someone else from their team – came clean and offered a believable and culpable account of the scandal, I would be able to begin the process of forgiveness, of thinking of Margarito as a boxer again.
Right now, as Margarito denies any wrongdoing, and Capetillo and Bob Arum offer lame excuses and improbable stories, I recoil at their presence. It’s a gut response, a visceral reaction, without thought or logic. As long as they don’t acknowledge the severity of their crime, I have to assume that they don’t understand it.
As long as they strut to the ring and, in Capetillo’s case at least, continue to earn paychecks outside the jurisdiction of any United States boxing commission, as long as they associate themselves with boxing without showing the sport the respect it demands, Capetillo and Margarito are simply thugs.
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This summer has been cruel to boxers.
RIP Vernon Forrest.
RIP Marco Antonio Nazareth.
No clue why anyone thinks it’s worth the grief to have Capetillo in the corner these days. He’s considered a good trainer, but there are others who are better and don’t come with the same (snicker) taint.
I’m sure it has something to do with loyalty, personal relationships, and all the things that tend to muck up the waters of seemingly clear moral issues. For all I know, Capetillo could be a father figure to Segura. I can’t say I have encyclopedaic knowledge of either man, but I just regret that I stared at Segura’s gloves and his KO record a lot longer than I would have if, say, Nacho Beristain were in his corner.
We’re on the same page to the letter SK. Living near Amish country, I am aware of one their practices: its called “shunning” and is used sparingly to expel those who commimit unpardonable offenses against the community. All right thinking folks in the Boxing community, and those who love the sport, should adopt it and apply it to these two.
Thanks Will. I don’t think it would be necessary to “shun” Capetillo or Margarito if they would just come clean. Their behavior is disturbing either way but their refusal to speak openly about the clear evidence against them is disappointing.
[...] Valdez, then reverted to a draw. I pray that an investigation into the result is established but, considering that the Mexican commission continues to allow Javier Capetillo to work in fighters̵…, I am not expecting fairness or justice for [...]