Antonio Margarito's Trainer Speaks Out on Manny Pacquiao Fight
In his first interview since leaving the ring after watching his fighter Antonio Margarito lose Saturday night's unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao, trainer Robert Garcia said that he considered stopping the one-sided fight but that Margarito pleaded with him not to do so. He also called Pacquiao "the best fighter in the world."
Garcia spoke to FanHouse from the Dallas Methodist Hospital, where he has been by Margarito's side since the fighter was admitted, and where the Mexican-born ex-champion will undergo surgery on Tuesday to repair a fractured right orbital bone resulting from the damage suffered in the bout.
What are your thoughts about what you've heard or read about the fight?
Robert Garcia: I haven't heard much. I've been focusing on making sure that everything is good here, staying with Antonio Margarito most of the day. Just getting spending most of the day with him, so I've been staying out of what has been said.
I have no idea what's been said. I've been with him every day and he's resting. He's doing good. The only thing that we're keeping him in the hospital is for his body to heal. He's got no other injuries, and the MRI's and everything are clean. The only thing was the right eye where there is a tiny fracture.
They're going to do a minor surgery, then, after that, the doctors said two months from contact. But he's eating. He's doing well. He's farting and making us laugh. He's walking around in the hospital, but he's ready to get out of there. He's always fun to be around.
His wife, Michelle, and both of his managers are with him.
Do you know if Antonio wants to fight again?
It's too early to make that decision, but I know Tony. Tony's going to say that 'I am.' But that's something that myself, his wife and his managers, you know, we're going to talk about and see where we go from there. But he seems fine and okay.
It's ultimately going to be the decision made by Tony and his wife, but I know Tony, and he's probably going to want to come back. I will support whatever he decides. I believe that he'll be there to do it again.
What are your thoughts about Antonio Margarito's performance?
I think that he proved that he's a warrior, and that he proved it to the world, but I think that Manny Pacquiao proved that there is no one who is near him right now. I thought that Antonio started out pretty good. I thought that he was blocking pretty good early, throwing his jab.
We were doing what we had planned. But I think that being in against somebody that is so fast, you know, so unbelievably fast, I believe that it was just that every time that Tony put pressure on him, he would move in a different direction, you know?
Whenever Tony would get Manny on the ropes, he would land very, very good body shots, uppercuts, hooks. I thought that he was landing some nice combinations. But it was just that he couldn't do it that often. You know, we were pushing for him to do it more often.
You know we were saying, 'Stay on him,' you know, 'Stay on him.' We wanted to pressure the fight because that's where Tony was getting good results. You know, when he was putting Manny against the ropes, with the body shots and the uppercuts and, you know, putting all of those shots together.
Where did you run into problems?
Well, most of the time, Manny would find his way around the ring. That's when he was really effective, you know? That, and I think it was the fourth round where Tony got hit with a really solid left uppercut when he was trying to walk into Manny.
That changed the fight around.
How so?
That uppercut was where the bruise started and that cut opened up under his right eye. I mean, I heard that punch. I mean, it sounded like like hitting two bones together. It was a solid punch. That changed the fight around. That gave Tony less confidence to just walk right in.
That's punch, you know, Tony felt that punch. I think it was at that moment I think that he realized, you know, that 'Not only is this guy that fast, but, you know, this guy is strong.' He didn't want to go into the ring and to keep getting hit. So he had to be a little more careful.
How did that alter your strategy?
We had to really try and make him stay on Manny, and I think that he was very effective. I think that the crowd saw that he was able to get at Manny with some good body shots and good uppercuts where Manny even confessed to the world that he was hurt at one point.
I think that it's something where you have to say, you know, that we tried our best, and that Manny is just a true warrior. But in the sixth round, you know, I believe that he caught Manny with a great body shot and Manny even admitted that he was hurt.
Manny Pacquiao has said that he doesn't know how he survived the round. You know that even says that Margarito was still in great condition even after the fourth round. It was a difficult night, but with the warrior that Margarito is and the heart that he has, we can't just go out like that.
I know my fighter. I know him well. I know him better than anybody else. So I know that he would never want to go out like that. So he went out and lost a decision to the best fighter in the world.
What do you say to someone who believes that you should have stopped the fight?
I know and I'm sure that there are a lot of critics out there who are saying that the corner should have stopped the fight. But Tony is just a warrior and that's why we're in boxing. It's a one-on-one situation in the ring. Margarito has the heart you know where he wants to fight to the end.
That's what boxing is, it's fighting. You don't go in there if you get hurt and then you're like, 'Oh, f**k it, just quit, you know? People don't like that. The crowd doesn't like that. Nobody ever criticized the Arturo Gatti fights or his trainers.
When he was taking beatings and he would still keep coming. Nobody ever criticized, like, 'Oh, they should have stopped the fight.' Well, Arturo Gatti was the tremendous warrior where everybody loved him, even after he lost. Well, you know, nobody ever said that his corner should have stopped the fight.
Even after he took beatings and beatings. They knew that he had a big heart, and they knew that he could surprise the world at any moment. So, I have a fighter who has the same heart as those Arturo Gatti type of fighters. Tony would have never allowed me to stop the fight.
He's a big, strong man, so anything could have happened. So we couldn't do that that easily. I know that Tony wouldn't have allowed it. I've been in boxing for a long time, and I've been a boxer. I applauded what Joe Goossen did with Diego Corrales in his fight with Jose Luis Castillo.
When Corrales looked like he was out of it during the first fight that they had, and he pushed Corrales to continue and he ended up knocking Castillo out. Everybody gave credit to Joe Goossen for doing that. Would they have said the same thing about that?
Did you consider stopping the fight?
You know, boxing is full of surprises, and that's why they're in there until the last bell rings, you know? That's what can happen in boxing. Should I have stopped the fight or let it go? Well, now, I'm thinking, you know, he was getting hit a lot.
But the first thing that I would say to him when he returned to the corner was 'Tony, how are you feeling? Be real with me. Are you okay?' And he would be like, 'No, I'm doing good, Robert, I'm real good.' He would say that he wasn't hurt, you know.
You know the worst that Manny stunned Margarito was maybe at the end of the 10th round like in the last 10 seconds. I did see Margarito's knees buckle. But when he came to the corner, you know, I saw his reaction by the way that he looked at me and the way that he talked to me.
He wasn't lost and he wasn't worried, and he was still in the fight. I knew that his heart was still there, so why would I consider stopping the fight when I know that the fighter was there to perform and to give the crowd a good fight and to please the crowd?
I do know that there was one round toward the end where he got buckled and I said, 'If you don't show me something, I'm going to stop the fight.' And he was like, right away, 'No, no, no, don't do it.' But I'm not trying to get him discouraged. I'm trying to get him more into it.
You know, like, 'Show me something,' and right away, he would respond. There were many other rounds where I would tell Tony, 'I need you to stay on him,' you know, 'That's what's giving you success, but you're not doing it to often,' and, 'stay on him, and one of those exchanges could do it.'
But Manny was still throwing punches and exchanging. I told Tony, 'You're bigger, you're the stronger man, and he'll go down if you catch him with a punch, so on the ropes, that's where I need you to be, on him, on the ropes, punching the body, uppercuts, hooks.'
And he would tell me with that excitement, 'Alright, I'm going to do it.' When I have my fighter in my corner, giving me that response, 'Okay, I got it, I got it, I'll do it, I'll do it,' with that face, you know. What am I going to do, say, 'Okay, ref, we can't continue?'
I'm not going to do that. Every round he was telling me that and giving me that reaction. 'Okay, Robert, I'll do it.' I'm not going to call it off. My fighter's a warrior, my fighter's got balls. He doesn't want to go out like that.
Were you at all surprised at anything that Manny Pacquiao did?
I knew that Manny was the best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound. He truly is and I know that his speed, his power, his footwork, I wasn't surprised at all. I wanted to see the best Manny Pacquiao, and we saw it. The whole world saw it.
After this fight, Manny just totally proved to everybody that there is nobody who is near where he is at right now. We probably won't see another Manny Pacquiao ever again. I don't see anybody ever doing what Manny has done. I wasn't surprised.
What did surprise me was that he took some good punches from Tony. Not only is he so fast and so strong, but he can also take a punch. You know, whatever happened earlier in his career where he got knocked out, all of that has changed, and now, he not only hits hard and is so fast, but he can also take a punch.
He took Tony's best punch and he kept coming, and he punched smart and he moved around and boxed and didn't take chances. The few times that Tony got him on the ropes and threw some nice uppercuts he was there and took them and kept coming and coming.
Me, myself, our management and our entire team, we tried our best, and we're just proud to say that we were in there against the best fighter in the world.
