Antonio Margarito

LAS VEGAS -- Boxer Antonio Margarito, whose career was stained by the 2009 confiscation of plaster inserts inside his hand wraps, announced his retirement Thursday. "After twenty-two years of full dedication to the profession I love, I have decided to announce my retirement from boxing,” Margarito said on his Facebook page. “After thinking broadly and in detail with my family and my team, we have come to the conclusion that it's time to hang my gloves and start a new chapter in my life.

LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao had sipped only on water all day before weighing in at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds Friday before his fourth fight against Juan Manuel Marquez. So after doing some brief interviews backstage, it was no wonder Pacquiao was in a hurry, jogging to get seated in the middle of a food table where chicken, white and fried rice, hard-boiled eggs, soup, oranges and bananas were laid out. Pacquiao, 33, had just looked his rival squarely in the eyes, Marquez holding the stare until Pacquiao cast his eyes away and walked off. Marquez weighed 143 pounds, the weight the former featherweight champion planned for to maintain crispness and movement with his added punching power.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Disgraced and disfigured former world welterweight champion Antonio Margarito said Friday night that he wants to face box-office darling Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September. Margarito was at the Casino Del Sol in support of his brother-in-law Hanzel Martinez, who knocked out Jose Miguel Tamayo in one round. “I've been told I could fight on May 26 here in Tucson,” Margarito said. “But if it's in June, that's fine, because it's in September that we're going to fight [Chavez]

Little has come easy for Sergio Martinez in life. The 37-year-old emerged from some of the poorest, toughest streets in Argentina to ultimately embrace boxing, grinding through nothing bouts in Buenos Aires around a knockout loss to Antonio Margarito 12 years ago. The southpaw sustained, continuing to develop through a draw and close loss in 2009 to become the Boxing Writers Assn. of America's fighter of the year in 2010 by defeating world middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and knocking out Paul Williams in the second round.

Boxer Antonio Margarito was temporarily suspended along with his trainer Javier Capetillo on Wednesday after the California State Athletic Commission announced it found a "foreign substance" in the boxer's hand wraps before his Saturday night loss to Shane Mosley at Staples Center. Margarito and Capetillo have been ordered to appear at a hearing on Feb. 10 in Van Nuys. In the hour before his first title defense as World Boxing Assn.

When it comes to house-hunting, there aren't too many neighborhoods in which welterweight champion Antonio Margarito can't afford to shop. The Mexican boxer will earn $2.3 million for about an hour's work Saturday against Shane Mosley at Staples Center, just slightly more than Margarito got in his last paycheck. And it's certainly enough to get him through the gates of even the most exclusive communities.

Suspended boxer Antonio Margarito, former world champion at 147 pounds, will not fight in a semi-main event prior to the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. Bob Arum of Top Rank, Margarito's promoter, said that Margarito would fight instead on a card May 8 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission after his upset loss to Shane Mosley at Staples Center in January 2009. Mosley's trainer discovered prior to that fight that Margarito had a plaster-like substance in the hand wraps under his gloves.

Manny Pacquiao's promoter had just finished railing at those who continue to doubt the honesty of boxer Antonio Margarito, some 18 months after California revoked Margarito's license for nearly taking gloves loaded with plaster inserts into a January 2009 bout at Staples Center against Shane Mosley. "Antonio Margarito did not know those illegal hand wraps were there, and there's not one shred of proof he did," promoter Bob Arum said Tuesday at an event in a packed Beverly Hills Hotel ballroom to promote Margarito's fight against Pacquiao on Nov. 13 in Texas.

4:52 p.m.: Antonio Margarito's camp was disappointed by the California State Athletic Commission's decision to not re-issue a license to the boxer. "We're very disappointed in the decision," Margarito attorney Daniel Petrocelli said. Margarito promoter Bob Arum said his office will file an application to gain a license in Texas on Thursday morning. Greg Sirb of the national Assn. Of Boxing Commissions said Margarito is free to apply in any other state to fight later this year, and will likely be viewed in a more favorable light elsewhere because he has followed the ABC request to first return to California before trying to get licensed elsewhere.

Changing his reputation might be a tougher challenge for Antonio Margarito than beating Manny Pacquiao. "A lot of people already think bad of me, and I can't change their opinions," Margarito said. State inspectors caught Margarito with plaster-hardened hand wraps before his January 2009 title fight against Shane Mosley at Staples Center. The wraps were confiscated, Margarito lost the fight, his title and his reputation. The California State Athletic Commission revoked Margarito's license for more than a year.

LAS VEGAS -- Boxer Antonio Margarito, whose career was stained by the 2009 confiscation of plaster inserts inside his hand wraps, announced his retirement Thursday. "After twenty-two years of full dedication to the profession I love, I have decided to announce my retirement from boxing,” Margarito said on his Facebook page. “After thinking broadly and in detail with my family and my team, we have come to the conclusion that it's time to hang my gloves and start a new chapter in my life.

Boxer Paul Williams was left paralyzed after a Sunday motorcycle crash near Atlanta, and doctors are unsure whether the 30-year-old will be able to walk again. Williams' manager told the Associated Press on Monday that Williams severed his spinal cord and that he cannot move from the waist down. "He's in very good spirits, though," said George Peterson, Williams' trainer. "He still believes he's going to fight again. " Williams crashed while trying to avoid an oncoming car after trying to maneuver away from another car in a lane next to him. Williams, of Aiken, S.C., was in the area to attend his brother's wedding on Sunday afternoon.

Timothy Bradley has questions to answer about his ability to maintain his speed with seven more pounds on, along with how he will fare under the hot lights of a pay-per-view main event in Las Vegas. The unbeaten Cathedral City boxer readying for his June 9 world welterweight title bout against Manny Pacquiao shrugged off that scrutiny, instead expressing the advantages he'll have over the Filipino superstar who labored to a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in November. "I can box, I can brawl, I'm well-conditioned -- no one is more conditioned than me," Bradley, 28, said.

LAS VEGAS -- At the final bell , they hugged and patted each other on the sides of the same heads they had spent an hour beating on. They were two tough fighters, not even knowing what the judges would rule, but each satisfied with an incredible effort Saturday night. This was the controversial Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus the resurgent and tough-as-nails Miguel Cotto. And when the decision was announced, the boos rang down. Mayweather had been given a surprisingly one-sided unanimous decision.

LAS VEGAS -- Floyd Mayweather Jr.improved to 43-0 with a unanimous decision over Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto (37-3) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mayweather, who is 35 and facing a June 1 jail sentence on a domestic violence case, remains in line for a super-fight against Manny Pacquiao after serving his time. Cotto was trying to revitalize himself following the hard-handed loss to Antonio Margarito in 2008, a knockout loss to Pacquiao in 2009 and the death of his father, Miguel Sr., in 2010.

LAS VEGAS -- The tranquility between Floyd Mayweather Jr.and Miguel Cotto ended Friday, when the pair exchanged heated words on the weigh-in stage followed by a backstage dispute that will force Mayweather to fight in a backup pair of gloves. Mayweather (42-0, 26 knockouts) weighed in at 151 pounds for Saturday night's World Boxing Assn. super-welterweight fight  against champion Cotto (37-2, 30 KOs), who weighed the limit 154. As the pair were posed for a face-off inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mayweather smacked chewing gum in the face of the stoic Puerto Rican, then told his foe, "When you face Floyd Mayweather, you face the best.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Disgraced and disfigured former world welterweight champion Antonio Margarito said Friday night that he wants to face box-office darling Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in September. Margarito was at the Casino Del Sol in support of his brother-in-law Hanzel Martinez, who knocked out Jose Miguel Tamayo in one round. “I've been told I could fight on May 26 here in Tucson,” Margarito said. “But if it's in June, that's fine, because it's in September that we're going to fight [Chavez]

Tired of being disappointed because there isn't a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight? Miguel Cotto is here to try to slug out your frustrations. "I didn't care about hearing one more thing about that," Cotto said Thursday, appearing in Hollywood to promote his May 5 bout against the unbeaten Mayweather. "My next step is Mayweather. If people want to see that [Mayweather-Pacquiao] fight, they have to wait until I beat Mayweather. " Cotto (37-2, 30 knockouts), the World Boxing Assn.