In the Philippines, the word 'puto' stands for a rice cake delicacy that is usually served and eaten as a desert and can also be enjoyed during breakfast time. Its counterpart, or what Filipinos call the female 'puto' is the 'kutsinta'. Before I get carried away and whet your appetites, allow me to remind myself that this is afterall a sports column and that the reason I mentioned the word is because Manny Pacquiao's opponent on November 13 Antonio Margarito just called Pacquiao a 'puto' in front of cameras in the recent HBO 24/7
episode. Something tells me Margarito wasn't referring to our good ol' Filipino rice cake.Throw all the pleasantries and niceties out the window in Camp Margarito, for the 'Tijuana Tornado' is coming to Texas with bad intentions. Margarito was telling the truth when he said he "isn't Joshua Clottey, Dela Hoya, Hatton or Cotto". Truth be told, Margarito is an angry volcano just waiting to unleash all his pent-up frustrations on your favorite karaoke-singing Filipino idol. Not that I'm not taking his trainer Robert Garcia's word for it when I spoke to him and he said that Margarito was training like a man possessed and that their camp is going great, but you can definitely see the fire in the eyes of Margarito as he aims to salvage his disgraced legacy that was smutted by the handwrap contoversy which occured prior to his fight against Shane Mosley.
For the record, Pacquiao has repeatedly said that he thinks Margarito is a cheater. He believes the Mexican knew about the hardened plaster inserts in his handwraps. In episode one of the HBO 24/7 series, Pacquiao even poked fun at Margarito asking if he thought people were stupid to believe that he had no knowledge of what had happened. For Pacquiao it's as simple as 'common sense'.
The comments definitely struck the ire of Margarito regardless if he plays it off as a joke. When someone in Margarito's camp pointed at Pacquiao's picture in a magazine and asked a kid if he knew who it was, Margarito told the kid 'es puto Pacquiao', meaning 'it's that b!+ch Pacquiao'. It's safe to say I am not ever asking Margarito to babysit my son. Margarito and trainer Robert Garcia also poked fun at the handwrapping issue by pretending to wrap a huge brick inside Margarito's fist while the Mexican fighter did his best impression of Pacquiao pretending not to look at his hands. I'm not going to lie, that was probably the best part of that 24/7 episode as the rest of the show has become cut-and-dried after seeing so many of them.
Is Freddie Roach and Pacquiao getting into Margarito's head? Or is the Mexican really just that confident that he will redeem himself from all the embarrassment caused by that fateful night when he got caught with loaded fists? It's getting closer and closer to fight night and it's about time this thing started to sound more like a fight. Margarito will definitely be coming in as determined as he's ever been his entire life. If Pacquiao isn't on his A-game and gets caught sleeping on his real job busy and distracted with the trappings of fame and status he now enjoys, not even Will Farrell can sing him out of his misery if Margarito scores an upset over him on November 13.
Side note: Filipinos know that 'puto' has another tandem other than the 'kutsinta', which is the 'dinuguan'. So if Pacquiao is the 'puto', will Margarito be 'dinuguan' on November 13??? If you don't know, you better ask somebody.
Dennis "dSource" Guillermo can be reached through email @ dennisguillermo2@yahoo.com.
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