Battered Margarito to have surgery on right eye socket

Published>Tue, Nov 16 10 02:38 AM

Antonio Margarito is scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday to repair a fractured right eye socket after taking a severe pounding during his lop-sided defeat by Manny Pacquiao in Dallas at the weekend.

Mexican Margarito, who lost the WBC super welterweight title fight to Filipino Pacquiao by an unanimous points decision, will have the procedure at Dallas Methodist Hospital, organisers said.

"Margarito has a fractured right orbital bone," Lee Samuels, spokesman for fight promoter Bob Arum, told Reuters on Monday. "He was banged up pretty bad.

"After the fight was over, he had some stitchwork done in the locker room. They put six stitches in his right cheek and three through his right eyebrow."

Despite holding a significant weight, height and reach advantage, Margarito was outclassed by a much faster Pacquiao over 12 rounds at Cowboys Stadium on Saturday.

The Filipino was a staggering 17 pounds lighter when he stepped into the ring but he pummelled the Mexican's head virtually at will, leaving his opponent with a puffed left eye and a cut under a badly swollen right eye.

Pacquiao's experienced trainer Freddie Roach was stunned Margarito did not quit before the end of the 12-round bout.

NO QUITTING

"He has a lot of balls and he didn't (quit)," Roach told reporters after Pacquiao had claimed an eighth world title in an unprecedented eighth weight class.

"I truly, truly think the job of the trainer is to protect your fighter and Margarito's corner should have saved him. He may never fight again.

"He took too much unnecessary punishment to me. I would have stopped that fight. After eight rounds, it was over and it was just a matter of time."

Roach added that he had never seen such a severe beating handed out by Pacquiao, who improved his career record to 52-3-2 with 38 knockouts.

Pacquiao, who opened the cut under Margarito's right eye during the fourth round, took pity on the bruised and battered Mexican in the 11th.

"I feel for my opponent, his eyes and his bloody face," said the Filipino, who looked across at referee Laurence Cole during the 11th round and asked him to stop the fight.

"I wanted the ref to look at that. In the 12th round I wasn't looking for a knockout."

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