After spending years calling himself the “most feared man in boxing” due to his inability to get any of the top names in the ring, Antonio Margarito is trying his hand at the ducking part of not making fights.

Margarito’s most recent search for an opponent settled on Shane Mosley, with Margarito promising to knock Mosley out when they met in a proposed fight in January. But a deadline for Margarito to sign the contract came and went on Tuesday, with Margarito passing on the Mosley fight, an opponent he himself had called out.

Back in October, Margarito told BoxingScene.com:

“I hope that’s not the reason – that Mosley won’t take the fight because he’s worried that he’s going to be the only one to disappoint Golden Boy by not being able to beat a Top Rank fighter. If I need to sit down with Jin [Mosley's manager and wife] and get her permission [for him to fight], I’ll be more than happy to do it. I didn’t want to say anything during [the negotiations]. I wanted to keep my mouth shut, but this guy is afraid to fight me.”

The reason for Margarito passing on the fight was money, according to sources close to him. With an offer of $2 million, Margarito was unwilling to accept the terms of the deal.

Here’s the deal: You’re not allowed to call anyone out if you back out of the deal after they accept it. You can’t say someone is afraid to fight you ever again, and you can’t say that anyone is ducking you ever again.

In fact, I think that Margarito owes an apology to all of the fighters he claimed were ducking him two years ago. Now that he is the top dog, maybe he understands that it’s not so easy to please everyone and you can’t fight everyone who wants to fight you.

Having said that, he should realize that if you’re the top dog, you can’t call anyone out if you don’t plan on making the fight. Passing on $2 million when you have exactly one quality win that’s not against Kermit Cintron is not the right move.

I suppose it’s just the standard move now that once you win the welterweight title, you refuse to fight the top guys in your weight class. Mayweather did it, and now Margarito is doing it. Sure, a rematch with Miguel Cotto is nice, but the right fight, especially once it was agreed to, was the Mosley fight.

Now Mosley is left without an opponent, and Margarito seems like he will put off fighting until June, when the proposed Cotto rematch will take place.

Nothing like reaching the top of your division in boxing, then becoming a once-a-year fighter who won’t fight the top challengers. Antonio Margarito: bad for boxing.

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