Pacquiao foe Margarito winds down training

Roberto Garcia, Antonio Margarito's head trainer, said that they are now tapering down training camp in advance of his ward's November 13 showdown with world pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. The Margarito-Pacquiao 12-round slugfest will be held at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas with the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) light middleweight title at stake. Margarito had his last day of hard sparring and heavy training on Monday and Garcia said they will now focus on sharpening up the Mexican's game plan for the mega fight. Margarito, 38-6 (27 KO), of Tijuana, Mexico, sparred twelve rounds at the Oxnard Boxing Academy in Oxnard, California, with Garcia rotating fresh opponents to keep a high level of pressure on the former welterweight champion. Among those who sparred with Margarito were former 2000 Olympian Ricardo Williams of Cincinatt, Kareem Carlos "Casey" Martinez of Texas, Cleotis "Mookie" Pendarvis of Los Angeles, and Austin Trout of Las Cruces, New Mexico. While the first three are considered speedy slicksters, Trout (21-0, 13 knockouts) is more of a powerhouse laborer. Though that might not fit the profile of the Filipino boxing icon Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs), Garcia still finds plenty of use for Trout. "Austin Trout is very strong, he throws fast combinations and stands in front of Margarito which is what we want. Margarito is much stronger than Pacquiao, so I need someone strong who can stand in front of him and throw hard punches and that's why I'm using Austin Trout." Garcia says that Margarito is just five or six pounds above the 150-pound catch weight. A Margarito win will give him his second weight division crown while a Pacquiao victory will be his record-setting eighth for the Fighting Congressman of Sarangani province "I've told everybody that talks to me that I feel very confident about this fight," says Garcia. "I see it in Margarito too, he feels very confident also. Every day he keeps pounding away and he says he feels even better than before he knocked out Miguel Cotto." – JVP, GMANews.TV Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to GMANews.TV. He can be reached at ryan@ryansongalia.com. An archive of his work can be found at www.ryansongalia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ryansongalia.