Cotto-Margarito decision comes Friday

The grudge match between WBA super-light-middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito scheduled for Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden, which is nearly sold out, is in jeopardy pending a decision Friday by the New York State Athletic Commission on whether to approve Margarito's license application.

The original request was denied Oct. 31 for medical reasons, according to a NYSAC spokesman. At Margarito's request, a 3 1/2-hour hearing was held Wednesday to discuss health and safety issues related to surgery Margarito had last spring to remove a cataract from his right eye and implant an artificial lens. He also suffered a broken orbital bone around that eye in his last fight a year ago against Manny Pacquiao.

Testifying for Margarito via video teleconference were Alan S. Crandall, who performed surgery on Margarito at the John A. Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City, and Rolando Toyos, a prominent Memphis-based ophthalmologist with a background in sports medicine. "Dr. Crandall submitted an affidavit and testified that the eye is as strong as someone who never had an artificial lens," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said. "It was state-of-the-art surgery. The old prohibition that someone can't fight if they have a lens implant is no longer the case."

Arum said no commission members questioned the doctors who testified for Margarito, but the NYSAC spokesman said, "They were questioned by a commission attorney and also responded to numerous questions from individual commissioners." Commission doctors testified for 90 minutes about their denial of the application and answered questions from Margarito's lawyers and the commissioners. A hearing is scheduled at 11 a.m. Friday to render a decision.

Arum indicated he has two venues prepared to take the fight in states where Margarito has been cleared. An MSG spokesman said the Garden had no comment.

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