Here's some video footage of Antonio Margarito training at the Gonzalez Sports Academy in San Diego, accompanied by an intimidating hip-hop beat:
Margarito (38-7, 27 KO) is facing Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KO) on December 3 at Madison Square Garden in a rematch of their epic 2008 fight. It's been a long time between the fights, with both fighters having changed a lot since that night. Margarito, now 33, has been through massive controversy, two bad beatings at the hands of Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao, and eye surgery this year. Cotto, 30, has switched trainers twice and has gone 4-1 (also losing to Pacquiao) since being beaten down by Margarito.
They've also had plenty of head games going on just to get this fight made, as Cotto tried to get a catchweight at 150 pounds, which would up being settled at 153, just one pound under the normal junior middleweight limit. Contract negotiations didn't go smoothly.
There's a lot of rivalry here, and a lot of passion, both in good and bad ways. I don't know how this fight will do at the end of an ugly pay-per-view run starting on Saturday with Mayweather vs Ortiz, but the fight won't struggle to get press.
And as for the video, Margarito looks in good shape, but then he usually does.