Undefeated boxing icon Floyd Mayweather recently revealed his relief at dodging a showdown with one former world champion in particular
‘Money’ Mayweather crossed paths with many of the greatest fighters of his generation during his glittering professional career, becoming a world champion in no less than five weight classes along the way.
The Michigan-native walked away from the sport with an unblemished record of 50-0 to his name, defeating the likes of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao to name just a few.
One man that Mayweather did not end up crossing paths with during his career was three-time welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, who became the subject of a controversial situation involving his hand wraps ahead of his 2009 showdown with Mosley.
In a resurfaced interview with Fight Hype, Mayweather admitted that he was relieved to have not faced Margarito during his tenure, although he claims that he was ‘never afraid’ of ‘The Tijuana Tornado’.
“Antonio Margarito said over and over again that I was afraid of him. He was pressing, and he wanted to fight so badly, because he was beating fighters with loaded gloves (with ‘casts’), so I’m glad God didn’t let that fight happen. Because you don’t know what kind of effect it would have had on me.
“Those (punches) would have wreaked havoc after my boxing career was over. He could have ended up killing me in the ring, you don’t know what could happen. So sometimes you have certain signals (to face fighters or not), I was never afraid of him and at that particular moment it didn’t make sense for us to fight.”
Whilst he enjoyed considerable success during his career, where he became a world welterweight champion several times, Margarito found himself a villain when he was caught using illegal hand wraps before his world title defence against Mosley in 2009.
Margarito would go on to suffer a ninth round stoppage defeat to ‘Sugar Shane’ following this, surrendering his WBA welterweight title at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
