Sixteen months removed from his last fight and the hand-wrapping scandal that could have spelled the end of his fighting days, Antonio Margarito kept his career alive by outpointing Robert Garcia in a 10-round junior middleweight bout in Aguascalientes, Mexico on Saturday.

Margarito (38-6, 27 KOs), who won by lopsided scores of 100-88, 99-89 and 99-90, dropped Garcia in the first round and soundly out-hustled the tough Texan over the following nine rounds of the bout that took place before a crowd of more than 17,000 fans inside La Plaza de Toros Monumental, a Spanish-style coliseum that usually hosts bull fights.

Referee Guadalupe Garcia penalized Garcia (28-3, 21 KOs) one point in the eighth round for headbutting and one point in the 10th round for low blows.

It was Margarito's first fight since Shane Mosley knocked him out in the ninth round to take his welterweight title in January of 2009. Prior to the bout, Mosley's trainer Naazim Richardson caught Margarito's trainer Javier Capetillo inserting gauze hardened by a plaster-like substance into his fighter's hand wraps.

The infraction resulted in the revocation of the U.S. boxing licenses of both Capetillo and Margarito. Margarito denied having any knowledge of Capetillo's attempt to load his hand wraps.

And though most boxing insiders and observers find that hard to believe, Margarito's promoter, Bob Arum, adamantly stood by his fallen fighter.

Arum has publicly stated that Margarito, who is now trained by Robert Garcia (no relation to the fighter who lost on Saturday), would seek to have his license reinstated in the U.S. if he won his comeback bout. If the former welterweight standout is granted a license in Texas, Arum says he would be willing to make a showdown between Margarito and current 147-pound beltholder and pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium.