PRESS CONFERENCE - FIGHT WEEK BLOG

LOS ANGELES -- If for no other reason than it wasn't that long ago, WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito has no problem remembering the long days, tough months and hungry years when he toiled as a fighter in obscurity -- back when the only title he held was based on perception rather than actual deed, that being the title of "The Most Feared Fighter In Boxing."

January 22, 2008 - by Chuck Johnson | Photos by Will Hart

"I think about it,'' Margarito said Thursday at the Staples Center where reporters, photographers and fans packed the final press conference prior to his HBO-televised scheduled 12-round title bout Saturday night (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT) against three-division, four-time former world champion Shane Mosley.

"I know what it was like to come up the hard way,'' said Margarito, recalling those earlier days of meager means, back when he came into the ring before a fight in Phoenix wearing a shower curtain instead of a robe.

"I think of some of those fights early on where I had to get dressed from the ring, and those fights were very difficult for me,'' he said. "But, right now, all the sacrifice and all the hard work has paid off."

These are heady days for Margarito, who looks back on where he's been and draws strength from how far he's come.

After years of campaigning for a title shot and being avoided by the boxers with the belts, Margarito got his chance last July when he was paired against unbeaten champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico.

In a fight for the ages, the fighter known as "The Tijuana Tornado" walked down Cotto and eventually stopped him with a 11th-round TKO victory that established Margarito as Mexico's newest No. 1 native fighting son.

"To be considered numero uno in Mexico is a great, great honor because, as we all know, the great standard bearer for Mexican boxing in our time was Julio Cesar Chavez,'' said Top Rank's Bob Arum.

"After Julio retired, it was Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, and then we needed to see who would grab that mantle of numero uno in Mexico It wasn't until Antonio Margarito knocked out Miguel Cotto that the Mexican people bestowed on Margarito the banner of numero uno and the standard bearer of Mexican boxing. And he knows that. He worked hard for it. He fought everybody to get there and now he represents the country of Mexico every time he steps into the ring."

Margarito, 30, can't help but marvel at how long he flirted on the fringes of stardom and how quickly things have changed.

Although he won the vacant WBO welterweight crown in March, 2002 when he scored a 10th-round TKO against Antonio Diaz, Margarito made seven successful defenses of that title but still lacked the big name on his record that a champion needs to command top billing. Losing the WBO crown to southpaw Paul Williams on a unanimous decision in July, 2007 was a setback, but Margarito rebounded by winning the IBF welterweight crown on a sixth-round KO against Kermit Cintron last April.

That victory was a step in the right direction. But while Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya prepared to collide in the richest fight in history, Margarito was largely left in the lurch, still looking for the high-profile fight against a quality opponent that he needed to catapult his career into the high-rent district.

That changed when Cotto, who is also promoted by Top Rank, stepped up to accept the challenge.

"It was quite obvious that nobody wanted to fight me,'' Margarito said. "Now that I beat the best welterweight in the world, everybody is calling me out.

"Without a doubt, Cotto was considered the No. 1 guy. I trained very hard to get to that level to get that fight. And when I won, I knew it would be my turnaround. And now bigger and better things are coming."

Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) will be making his first title defense since lifting the crown from Cotto and is considered the betting favorite against the older but faster Mosley (45-5, 38 KOs) , who lost a close 12-round decision against Cotto in November, 2007.

"I don't think it was a case that nobody wanted to fight him, but it's just that now he's a name-fighter after his victory against Cotto,'' Mosley said. "He's just like Winky (Wright) was when I fought Winky. When you foight somebody like a Winky or Vernon (Forrest) at that time, you didn't make the kind of money that you could make fighting somebody else. Now Margarito is big and it's worth the risk."

Margarito, now in the driver's seat of fame and fortune, says Mosley will be surprised that the risk is still too great for the potential reward.

"I think he might have waited too long to fight me because now the risk is a lot greater,'' Margarito said. "I hope the reward is good for him."