By Don Deane

18.10 - After Saturday night's thumping of Danny Perez on Showtime, many people got their first look at the skill level of Antonio Margarito. Because his last two appearances on television were marred by a head butt (vs Daniel Santos) and an early stoppage (vs Antonio Diaz), Margarito was not able to showcase his tenacity and stamina over 12 rounds. Given the world class levels of Diaz and Perez, and the lopsided whippings Margarito gave both of them, the question should be asked….Can Margarito take Vernon Forrest?

Though I do enjoy getting the readers all riled up, I'm not going to say Margarito will beat Forrest, but I will say he has the ability to win. Margarito likes to bring pressure and come forward, and he has the height to stand up with Forrest. Natural size advantages gave Forrest a huge edge against Sugar Shane in their two scraps. Forrest had the reach to keep Mosley from doing what he is best at. Margarito's size negates that height advantage and reach. It would be interesting to see if Margarito could make a slug fest out of it. If he can't, then Forrest's prettier style will prevail in a late round knockout or decision win. Forrest is also a trickier fighter than Diaz or Perez. Diaz and Perez employ the same basic Mexican style that Margarito uses. The difference is Diaz and Perez have developed Americanisms such as dancing and dropping the hands. Forrest would smoke both of those guys pretty easily as did Margarito. If Margarito can adjust to the skills of Forrest then he has a chance, if not, it will be a short night. Bottom line is, if this fight happens before Forrest goes big game hunting at 154, it would be a very entertaining tussle determining who is king at welterweight.

Switching gears for a moment, this Hopkins-Hakkar mess is really bothering me and many others. Its one thing to pay the cable bill for the HBO and Showtime telecasts, but to pay an additional sum to watch Hopkins fight some nobody is ridiculous. I'm sure Hakkar is a great fighter, but it isn't worth 49.95 to find out. Don King does a lot of injustice to the sport. He is responsible for some great fights in the history of the sport, but he can't get passed his own self interest often enough to benefit the sport even more. It is quite justified that HBO and Showtime would both balk at giving a television date for this fight, and a title defense like this should probably land on Friday Night Fights. Plenty of world champions have fought on cable. Before they had cable, fighters all fought on ABC. The whole Pay Per View phenomenon is an insult to boxing fans and provides more money for everybody but the fighters. Only huge mainstream draws like De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones truly benefit from the additional price tag. Even a win over Felix Trinidad will not be enough to boost Bernard Hopkins into that select crowd. Hopkins has always been a blue collar fighter, that is what he is best at and where he belongs, he needs to represent what he truly is now more than ever. This fight has to happen in order for Hopkins to retain his belt, it just does not need to come at the expense of fight fans.

In order to not derail the positive movement boxing is making, promoters, networks, fighters and especially sanctioning bodies need to make the correct fights happen on the correct medium and at the correct price to the fans.