Talking about the decision in Saturday's WBO welterweight tile fight in which Paul Williams claimed Antonio Margarito's title, Bob Arum told Boxingtalk, "I thought it was a very close fight.  Margarito [should have] won the fight, but the judges saw it the other way.  You can't quarrel, it was a close fight.  It was a very, very good fight. 

GL:  Do you think that Margarito getting off to a slow start is what cost him the fight? "I didn't think it was that close.  In the first 6 rounds, I scored it 3-3.  I had him winning the third and fourth round, and even the fifth and sixth rounds.  Then I had him winning 4 out of the 6 rounds down the stretch."


GL:  Obviously, since you feel he won, you don't feel his market value has been too affected at all.  Where do you go from here?

BA:  Well, we're going to have to see.  Look at what's out there, obviously, he didn't win.  We have to be realistic about it, the ref didn't wave his hand.  We have to see where we go as far as [WBA welterweight champion Miguel] Cotto is concerned.  That will be determined within the next couple of days.

GL:  Will it be Mosley?

BA:  There a good possibility, I'm going to be meeting with Richard Schaeffer tomorrow.  We have a number of things to discuss, including the Cotto and the [Shane] Mosley fight.  So, that's a real possibility.

GL:  Is is safe to say that he's the frontrunner?

BA:  If there is any kind of frontrunner.  It depends on the deal that can be worked out, it's all preliminary right now.  There's certainly no hesitation on Cotto's part to fight Mosely.  If a deal can be worked out, why not.  I've been talking to Larry Merchant, he said that the fight in this weight division and with a track that denotes interest.

GL:  Well, I guess we'll have to wait a few more days, and see what's going on with your 140 pound movers and shakers.

BA:  That's the way it always is, but everybody now is doing business as business, and not with crazy ego, not with litigation.  That's really a breath of fresh air. 

GL:  Were you and Richard Schaeffer, in addition to talking about Mosley and Cotto, continuing discussions about Guzman and Soto, and ...

BA:  Yes.  We're meeting with the Mandalay people to lay out the promotion for  October 6th.  Then we're going to have a meeting among ourselves on various other fights we could be doing. Steven Luevano,  that's a big victory  in the featherweight division.  He looked great.  I don't know if Juarez is commited to fighted Guerrero, but Juarez would be the next man up in the WBO.  I certainly would discuss tht fight with him, but he may be commited to fighting Guerrero.  I don't know about that. 

M

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