Nevada rejects boxer Antonio Margarito’s appeal for license renewal

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The Nevada State Athletic Commission Friday declined to reissue a license to former world welterweight boxing champion boxer Antonio Margarito, instructing him to gain approval first from California, where his license was revoked last year.

“Pretty frustrated,” Margarito’s promoter, Bob Arum said. “They should’ve given an up or down vote on it, not sent us back to California.”

Nevada’s head commissioner, Pat Lundvall, expressed a willingness to re-license Margarito at Friday’s hearing, said the Nevada commission’s executive officer Keith Kizer.

Margarito, who appeared at the hearing along with his wife, was suspended in February 2009 along with his then-trainer Javier Capetillo after Shane Mosley’s trainer and California authorities found and seized plaster-hardened inserts inside Margarito’s hand wraps before Margarito was to defend his welterweight tile in a January 2009 bout at Staples Center. Mosley won by ninth-round TKO.

Arum said Margarito’s lawyers will determine if they will seek to regain the license in California, whose commission has been viewed as adversarial, according to the boxer’s handlers.

Arum hoped to have Margarito fight a Dec. 4 rematch against current world super-welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, whom Margarito defeated in 2008. Cotto later said he believes he lost to a fighter with loaded gloves.

On Friday, Arum suggested another powerful possibility — taking Margarito to Mexico City for a Nov. 13 fight against Manny Pacquiao if Pacquiao’s planned mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. fails to materialize.

“Mexico has made a heck of an offer to get Pacquiao,” Arum said.

The California commission is meeting next on July 26 should Margarito opt to appear, a state official said.

-- Lance Pugmire