Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
After days of uncertainty, the New York State Athletic Commission on Tuesday granted Antonio Margarito a boxing license, ensuring that he will challenge junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto in a much-anticipated rematch Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden.
“There is a fight. This gotta be a chapter in my book,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum exclaimed after watching the commission hearing on a live webcast. The commission had reservations about licensing Margarito because of a serious eye injury he suffered in a lopsided decision loss to Manny Pacquiao last November. Margarito suffered a badly broken orbital bone in his face and developed a cataract in his right eye.
“We went through a lot and Antonio saw every doctor he was asked to see and all of them gave us the same news — that everything was great and that there was no reason for him not to be approved,” Sergio Diaz, Margarito’s co-manager, said. “When we told Antonio he was licensed, he was screaming and he was happy. Now he is saying he has to take care of business come Dec. 3.”
Margarito and his team at first considered the injury to be career ending. However, he eventually had cataract surgery and an artificial lens placed in his eye by renowned specialist Dr. Alan Crandall — who had previously performed cataract surgery on Arum and his wife, Lovey — in Salt Lake City this past spring.
But as a matter of policy, the New York commission — chairperson Melvina Lathan, Edwin Torres and Thomas Santino — denies applicants with the kind of eye issues Margarito has, although it is within its rights to give a license.
The commission denied Margarito a license in early November but granted him a hearing to make his case. It took place last Wednesday during which Crandall and Dr. Rolando Toyo, who has worked as an eye doctor for multiple professional sports teams, testified that Margarito was fit to fight. The commission doctor and a member of its medical advisory panel disagreed.
On Friday, rather than voting on the application, the commission ordered Margarito to leave his training camp in Mexico and fly to New York to be examined by a doctor of its choosing.
Margarito broke camp Sunday night and flew on a Top Rank-charted private plane to New York. He spent Monday seeing doctors.
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WRITEN BY Dan Rafael is ESPN.com’s boxing writer & FULL STORY HERE
