I will beat Pacquiao - Margarito

MANILA, Philippines - Antonio Margarito, now licensed and ready to fight, has his game face on.

 The former king of welterweights shared with boxingscene.com his happiness after Texas gave him the green light to fight pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao in the Lone Star State on Nov. 13.

Margarito, who turned 32 last March, welcomed the opportunity to go up against the giant-killer from the Philippines, and at the same time prove to everyone that he doesn’t need a loaded pair of hands to win.

Then he vowed to beat Pacquiao.

“I will beat Pacquiao,” said Margarito, at 5’11” more than four inches taller than Pacquiao.

Margarito was denied in his bid to regain his license in California last Aug. 18, and when he turned to Texas he was met with open arms. The decision to let him fight Pacquiao in Texas came the other day.

Margarito couldn’t hide his bitterness over the decision of the California State Athletic Commission to keep his hands frozen, following its revocation in February last year due to illegal hand wraps in a fight with Shane Mosley.

The Mexican warrior has only had one fight since then, a small one, and now he has the license to return to the big stage. In fact, no stage is bigger than when Pacquiao is on one corner, whoever he’s up against.

When he climbs the ring inside the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium, Margarito will try to prove a lot of people wrong.

“It’s unfair what they (the commission of California) did to me. I had to appear before them when their minds were already been made up.

“But now I’m happy because I have the fight with Pacquiao in my hands and because I have the opportunity to show that I am a clean fighter,” said Margarito.

“I thank Texas for giving me the license, for believing in me. I am going to prove that I don’t need anything forbidden to win my battles or past fights, including Miguel Cotto. But again, I’ll tell them, that when the date arrives I’m going to show them that I have what it takes to win. It’s a hard fight but I’m going to win.”