Antonio Margarito takes a hard hook from Shane Mosley during their welterweight title fight on Jan. 24, 2009. Margarito, who hasn't fought since being stopped in the ninth round by Mosley and doesn't have a fight scheduled, is currently suspended from fighting in the U.S. He has been dropped from THE RING's welterweight rankings for inactivity. Photo / Craig Bennett-Fightwireimages.com

Antonio Margarito, the contender with the most consecutive weeks in THE RING’s welterweight rankings, has been dropped from the magazine’s ratings for inactivity.

Margarito, who has not fought since being knocked out by Shane Mosley in Los Angeles, Calif., on January 24, 2009, had been in THE RING’s welterweight rankings for 448 weeks (or a little over 8¾ years).

Prior to entering the ring against Mosley, who stopped him in nine one-sided rounds, Margarito’s trainer Javier Capetillo was caught trying to implant folded gauze saturated with a plaster-like substance into his fighter’s hand wraps, a heinous rules violation that resulted in the California State Athletic Commission revoking the both Margarito and Capetillo’s licenses after a hearing on February 10.

Margarito’s license revocation prevented him from fighting in the U.S. for at least one year, when he would be able to appeal the California commission’s ruling. For a time, it was thought that the disgraced Mexican fighter might fight in his home country at some point during 2009 but he wound up taking the year off and was tentatively scheduled to return to the ring on the March 13 undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight against Carson Jones pending his re-license in Texas, where the card takes place.

However, Margarito’s promotional company, Top Rank, announced that he would not return on that card for unspecified reasons.

Bob Arum, president of Top Rank, told The L.A. Times that Margarito might fight on a card in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on May 8, but that date has yet to be set.

“Had Antonio Margarito been licensed to fight in Texas and fought on March 13, we would not have dropped him,” said Nigel Collins, THE RING magazine’s Editor-in-Chief. “But as that fight was cancelled and Margarito still doesn’t have a license to box in the U.S., he is being treated the same as any other fighter who has not fought in more than a year and has no fight scheduled.”

Margarito’s departure marks the first time the former titleholder has not been ranked by THE RING since 2002.

The Southern California-born Tijuana resident first broke into THE RING ratings with a 10th-round stoppage of Antonio Diaz in March of 2002. Diaz, a former standout at 140 pounds, was in the magazine’s welterweight top 10 at the time.

Margarito (37-6, 27 knockouts) went on to fight eight welterweights who were RING-rated at the time — Danny Perez, Andrew Lewis, Sebastian Lujan, Kermit Cintron (twice), Clottey, Paul Williams, Miguel Cotto and Mosley — losing only to Williams (by unanimous decision) and Mosley.

However, Margarito’s TKO victories over Cotto and Cintron (the rematch), which took place the year before his fight with Mosley, are now under suspicion by many fans and members of the media due to his hand-wrapping scandal.

RING RATINGS UPDATE

WELTERWEIGHTS:

Margarito (No. 6 last week) exits due to inactivity. All welters below him last week climb one rung each. The void is filled by Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Senchenko (29-0, 20 KOs) at No. 10.

FEATHERWEIGHT:

The Philippines’ Bernabe Concepcion (28-3-1, 15 KOs) replaces Ryol Li Lee at No. 10, thanks to his 10-round decision over Mario Santiago on Saturday.