Andre Berto: Next in Line

With all of the Mayweather-Mosley talk… with Manny Pacquiao campaigning for Congress in the Philippines and Miguel Cotto shanking hands in Yankee Stadium… with all that Antonio Margarito has managed to stir up with his looming return, and Pauli Malignaggi’s Twitter trash talk… HBO’s “24/7″ program premiering tonight, and the May 1st hype pumped on ‘roids like the PDA’s the Olympic-Style Drug Officials tested Shane & Floyd for on tonight’s series premier episode…. 

…amidst all of this, did we somehow ‘forget’ about Andre Berto? 

If so, he reintroduced himself to the masses in explosive fashion with a devastating Knock Out victory over Carlos Quintana.

He’s shown great character in his humanitarian efforts as he forewent his scheduled January 30th fight versus Shane Mosley to volunteer in his native Haiti… tonight, it was Quintana who was in need of rescue and relief efforts as Berto seemingly picked him apart in route to maintaining his undefeated streak.

ESPN’s Dan Rafael’s full report here//
HBO.com’s report//

To Mislead or Deny: The defense of Antonio Margarito

It’s been 16 months since we last heard from Antonio Margarito… many expected the former champion to admit wrong doing in an effort to repair his career; to maneuver his way back into the good graces of the world boxing community who respected his “never quit” mentality but were disgusted with the notion that he would cheat the sport… Other’s have been waiting to hear remorse, regret, humility…

What they got was:  “I see no reason to apologize!”

In a stunning course of events (or within the evolving destruction of his personal character) Margarito has decided to not only denounce any knowledge of the illegality of the substance that laced his hands with hardening cement prior to his fight with Shane Mosley, but also that it had been placed on his hands in the first place! 

The Associate Press reports:  “Margarito defiantly claimed both innocence and ignorance when he finally spoke at length Tuesday about the glove-loading scandal early last year that led to the revocation of his California boxing license and a 16-month ring absence, which will end next month in Mexico.”

The article continues:  “Margarito repeatedly claimed he knew nothing about any irregular gauze pads inserted into his hand wraps for his fight against Sugar Shane Mosley in January 2009, and his camp has debated the very illegality of the substances. When Mosley’s trainer objected to Capetillo’s wraps, officials discovered the pads, which apparently were loaded with a substance resembling plaster.”

Click Here for the full report.