Shortly after the weigh-in for Saturday's fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana, a collective gasp went through the media center: the bout was in jeopardy because of a gloves dispute with one of Mayweather's chief advisers claiming the bout was off.
As if the welterweight unification match didn't need any more controversy, along comes Glovesgate.
A day before a fight, it's customary for boxers to settle on the gloves they will wear. On Friday, Mayweather's camp objected to a certain customized style blue Everlast MX Boxing glove that Maidana wanted to use.
After Mayweather loudly protested the use of the gloves, the Nevada Athletic Commission inspected the pair and ruled they 'were not allowed,' according to Golden Boy CEO, Richard Schaefer.
'Ain't no padding in the gloves,' Mayweather said, according to footage of the scene recorded by Fighthype.com. 'It's already broken in.'
Mayweather complained that he didn't 'want to end up like a vegetable' if he receives a blow from the thinly padded glove, according to a source who was there.
Trying on the 8-ounce glove, Mayweather said the padding was so thin he could feel the outlines of his knuckles. At that point, the state commission ordered representatives from both camps into a room, the source said. Maidana's camp then produced another variation of the MX model that combines horse hair and foam. This time, the gloves were approved by the commission, Schaefer said.
But Mayweather again objected, saying the dispersal of padding was back-loaded, meaning the stuffing was toward the wrist instead of the knuckle. The commission ordered both sides to resolve the issue themselves, and as of late Friday evening, the matter still hadn't been fixed.
'There's a dispute and it will get figured out but we're not fighting with those gloves,' Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe told the Daily News. 'There wasn't any padding [in the gloves].'
Asked if the fight was in jeopardy of being called off, Ellerbe replied: 'We're not fighting in those gloves.'
Later, Ellerbe told Fighthype in a separate interview: 'No, we're not fighting tomorrow. It is what it is.'
However, Schaefer told a small group of reporters in the media room at the MGM that he expects the matter to be resolved and the fight to go on.
'They're still talking about it but everything will be worked out,' Schaefer said. 'I am absolutely confident that it will all be worked out.'
Schaefer was asked if the two camps can't come to a resolution, what next.
'I've been told there will be no problem,' Schaefer told the News. 'There's going to be a fight and they're both going to wear gloves and we're all going to be happy. It will be a brand that's acceptable to the commission.'
Schaefer said that going forward contracts for the boxers should include clauses describing the exact types of gloves boxers will use to avoid this type of issue taking place barely 24 hours before a match.
'These days you see all these fancy made gloves being used by fighters and I think the commission is probably going to be implementing some new rules as well where if somebody wants to use custom sized gloves they're going to have to be presented to the commission way before the weigh in,' Schaefer said. 'So that the opposing camp can look at it and you can avoid these types of disputes.'
Schaefer also said it was not uncommon for fighters to object to an opponent's gloves as a form of posturing and gamesmanship.
0 Comment "Floyd Mayweather Jr., Marcos Maidana fight in jeopardy because of gloves dispute"
Posting Komentar