DALLAS – Antonio Margarito left the Cowboys Stadium bruised, battered, terribly beaten.
In what could be the worst beating of his career, the game Mexican warrior bowed to Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao in their 12-round battle for the vacant WBC super-weltwerweight championship.
Margarito managed to stay up on his feet all night, but took a lot of punishment from the hard-hitting Pacquiao.
Inside his dressing room, Margarito took stitches above and under his eyes, and was taken to the hospital shortly afterwards for precautionary tests.
He begged off from joining the post-fight press conference upon the advise of the doctors.
“You can tell he was in pain,” said Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez who was with Margarito inside the dressing room after the fight.
“Yes, he managed to talk but he talked very slowly,” said Ramirez.
“He got stitches over his eyes, inside the dressing room, and he was just there sitting down.”
Pacquiao, the king of boxing, had already left the building when Margarito’s own convoy drove to the hospital.
A black Suburban carried the beaten Mexican warrior who was on the front seat, with what looked like a white towel over his head.
“I pity him because he really had a bad cut,” said Pacquiao.