By Edward Chaykovsky
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, the head coach for WBO welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao, is looking to turn the tables on WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Last year, during the first fight with Marcos Maidana, there was pre-fight controversy at the weighin when Mayweather refused to move forward with the contest - because he objected to the brand of gloves that Maidana was using.
For the upcoming mega-fight on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Roach wants Mayweather's custom made gloves inspected. Roach is concerned that Grant, the company of choice for Mayweather's gloves, is make adjustments in the design of the gloves to further protect Mayweather's hands, which have been injured in past fights.
"Grant is doing his gloves, and they're all custom-made, and I'd like to know what he's using -- like what he's putting in those gloves, and what materials they're made with," Roach said to David Mayo of Mlive.com. "Our gloves are made by machine in Mexico. They're the same all the time. They're very standard. Top Rank has a warehouse full of them. They'll grab 10 pair and we'll pick our gloves from one of the 10."
"I'm a little bit worried about the weight of the gloves [on Mayweather], and the padding, because I know that Floyd has a little bit of fragile hands. It's something that runs in the family. I think that they all can punch really well but they have small hands. I'm a little concerned about the custom-made gloves that Floyd's going to wear."
