Article:You Want a Real Cheater?

It still amazes me, months later, how the moral police can go so hard on MLB players who use steroids; yet Antonio Margarito can put lives on the line with his cheating and you hear next to nothing.

Manny Ramirez used testosterone and female fertility drugs to be able to hit a baseball farther and more frequently. Margarito inserted plaster into his gloves and then used them to bash his opponents' skulls in! You would think with such a dangerous sport as boxing (even with the horrible way it's managed and all the money on the line) there'd be some sort of code of honor between these guys who are already putting their lives on the line to at least do it the right way. Margarito's actions show his failure not just as a competitor, but as a man.

Yet where is the mob commenting on this? Where are the SportsCenter specials? Shouldn't the WBA (or the WBC, IBA, IBO, etc.) be investigating this? How long has this been going on? Who else is doing it? Do you mean to tell me that, in a sport which has existed for centuries, no one checks whether or not someone is cheating in the most obvious way? It took the opposing boxer's trainer watching the wrapping taking place in order to catch Margarito in the act.

It's a given truth in any pro sport, or any situation where a lot of money is involved, that some sort of cheating occurs. Whatever. I don't care. However, when someone is almost able to get away with repeatedly hitting someone in the head with plaster, I think we can all agree that that's crossing the line. I realize also that boxing (while saying it's "dying" is a ridiculous statement) is not as popular of a sport as the MLB, NBA, and NFL; but a grave injustice is being done. The chilling thing about it is, since it's not popular, no one cares.