MANILA, Philippines – For several boxing analysts, Manny Pacquiao’s November 13 fight against Antonio Margarito means so much more than just the Filipino fighter’s attempt to win a record 8th world title.

For them, a Pacquiao loss to the taller and stronger Mexican could affect the sport itself.

“Personally, I hope it doesn’t happen. I didn’t think Margarito’s ban from the sport was long enough, and I certainly don’t think he deserved this fight with Pacquiao,” Martin Rogers, a columnist for Yahoo! Sports, said in a blog report by Ring Magazine’s Doug Fischer.

Rogers said that a Margarito victory would “absolve” the Mexican from any wrong doing in relation to the 2009 hand wraps controversy.

The 32-year-old Mexican was meted a year's suspension from boxing in the US after being caught with plaster-of-Paris-like substance in his hand wraps. The discovery was made shortly before his fight against Shane Mosley in 2009.

Javier Capetillo, the boxing coach who did the hand wrapping, was also suspended.

Fighting with “loaded gloves” is a taboo in boxing. However, Rogers said a Margarito victory on Nov. 13 may simply erase the blemish from the Mexican’s record.

Failure to regulate

Sergio Machado, the programming director for Fanaticos.com, said a Margarito win can be viewed as the sport’s failure to regulate itself.

“The bottom line is that his case is a total mess, and I strongly believe that the lack of authority in boxing and promoters controlling too much in the sport is the main cause of it,” he said.

“No authority means anarchy, and in Margarito’s case, anarchy and soft punishment will have prevailed if he wins on November 13,” added Machado.

Boxing historian Bert Sugar, meanwhile, said the Pacquiao-Margarito fight is somewhat viewed like a battle between a hero and non-hero.

He said a non-hero's win would mean a loss for boxing.

“Boxing would lose if Margarito won because Pacquiao is such a lovable hero, and Margarito is a sullied non-hero with a mark against him,” said Sugar.

He, however, pointed out that the Mexican champion doesn’t really rank among boxing’s “bad boys.”

“I don’t put Margarito into the [Sony] Liston and [Mike] Tyson category,” Sugar said. “I’ll put him into the ‘comes-back-from-the-discarded-pile’ category if he somehow wins, because he’s not just coming back from a suspension, he’s coming back from what looked like a career-ending beating from Mosley.”

Unlike Margarito, both Liston and Tyson served prison terms.

'Didn't know about the wraps'
The 5'11" Margarito has consistently denied he knew about the hand wraps before the Mosley fight.

"People can think what they want. Many people believe I didn't know anything," he said in HBO's boxing documentary, 24/7 Pacquiao vs. Margarito.

"I can't change the way people think but I didn't know what was in the infamous wrappings," he added.

Margarito said the important thing is that he's coming back.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, laughed at Margarito's claim.

"Of course he knew. What do you think of us, stupid?" he said.

The Filipino boxing champion said it is impossible for a boxer not to know what his trainer puts on his hands.

Despite this incident, the 5'6" Pacquiao still agreed to fight Margarito.

“We have to give him a chance to recover his career. We're just human, we're not perfect,” said the 31-year-old boxing champion from the Philippines.

By fighting Margarito, the 7-division world champion Pacquiao will attempt to win the World Boxing Council (WBC) super welterweight title, which would mean an 8th boxing crown.

He agreed to take on the Mexican at a 151 pound-catch weight limit, despite Margarito's size advantage.