Felix trinidad wraps scandal

An Open Letter to Steve Kim... By Aladdin Freeman and Elisa Harrison "Losers have excuses, winners don't"... Jeff Mayweather Aladdin Freeman asks you... If Tito and his father were trying to cheat don't you think he'd cut the tape and everything off? Your October 29th, 2001 article "Cheat-To Trinidad" is malicious and irresponsible; it ranks right up there with the cheapest supermarket tabloids, the ones that use sensationalism and misconceptions to sell issues, regardless of who they vilify. I must confess that I am aghast as to how you have been able to get away with this piece, unbalanced and irresponsible as it is. You took the words of the three guys who Félix Trinidad beat the worst, and used them to cast a heavy shadow on Trinidad's career, his accomplishments, his pugilistic integrity. In reality, you have done the same for his father, and for every Commission and every inspector they have ever fought under, but more on that in a minute. Your article states that William Joppy has a strong opinion about "all this," whatever all this is, because there is no proof or evidence of any impropriety on the part of the Trinidad camp. You obviously conducted some sort of interview -or shall we call it a witch hunt- with Joppy, in which he assumes that the reason why he looked like a rubber band man on May 12th, 2001, at the Garden, is because Tito's gloves were "loaded." You continued the public lynching in cahoots with Fernando Vargas, who based solely on what James Fisher said proceeded to malign his handlers, his own camp; and then goes on to justify his starching with a cloak and dagger story, without the benefit of names, dates, or anything specific, solely hear say. As for David Reid, well, let's just look at his last fight and leave it at that. I feel that as a responsible journalist you should have gotten both sides of this story, because as you might know, Trinidad didn't demolish all his opponents in the same manner he did Reid, Vargas and Joppy. So, what is the explanation there? The "loaded" gloves were only "loaded" on certain days and only against certain opponents? How illogical and foolish is the concept? One of your readers e-mailed you, condemning your atrocious article, and your answer to him was even worst than the article. Your response to this reader was, and I am quoting: "THANK GOD YOU ARE A NOBODY!" Well, this person contacted me, quite upset at the way you had responded, and asked if we could help him set the record straight. So, Mr. Kim, on behalf of Taino34652, who is very much SOMEBODY in our book, my feature correspondent Aladdin Freeman and I set out to seek answers, and a better understanding on how a boxer's hands are wrapped. I guess you can call it, doing your homework for you, or better yet, presenting facts instead of fiction. The general question asked was "how do you wrap your fighters' hands?" This is how the question was answered by some of the game's most reputable and knowledgeable people. 1.- Teddy Atlas "This is why we need a National Commission because there is no rhyme or reason in regards to some of the rules. Every state allows you to wrap the fighters hands differently. I personally usually use gauze, then 1 roll on tape on each hand for my fighters. More tape doesn't add punching power it's more to protect the fighters hands." 2.- Tommie Brooks "The most important thing to do when wrapping your fighters hand is to protect them, not for added punching power. How you do this is by establishing a good base. Start with gauze or pre-wrap, then make sure you wrap the wrist first and very tight. I know every state allows different rules when it comes to wrapping but usually you can get away with one and a half rolls per hand but with the big guys you definitely need two rolls for each hand. It also helps if you have a general idea where the breaks occur, like the knuckles, so you can put extra foam or padding for the fighters." 3.- José "Pepe" Correa Tito Trinidad can punch so goddarn hard, you may think he has a brick in his gloves, because that is the way he can kick it. I've heard a lot of garbage about he has this in his gloves, he had that in his gloves....Let me tell you something, whenever there is a championship fight we have inspectors in the dressing rooms that watch us prepare, watch us get our hands wrapped. These are professional people who do nothing but watch you wrap your hands. The only thing that Félix Trinidad had in his gloves fight night against any of those guys he knocked out was hand wraps and KNUCKLES! Real knuckles, not brass knuckles. Let me tell you something, these people have no ground to stand on. You have a hard punching Puerto Rican that can hit like hell, and they just hate the fact that he can punch like that. I use all the gauze I have on the hand, to make my fighter the best fist, the hardest fist that I can make, and yes, I am trying to make it as hard as I can, because we are allowed to do that. After wrapping his hands, I take the tape, I do the wrist and part of the hand area, I do not go across the knuckles, no trainer does, you are not allowed to do that, that is against the law. We are given a certain amount of gauze to wrap our guys' hands. What I do is I start up at the wrist area and I come down, I put as much as I possibly can across the fist area, so he doesn't damage his hands, because we are hitting with his knuckles, so therefore I'm allowed to take one gauze and wrap it the way I want to and put that across his knuckles, I do that with all my fighters and have done that for years. I use tape that I put between the fingers but I do not put tape across the gauze, you gotta have it at least an inch behind the knuckles. You have tape that goes between the fingers, which has nothing to do with trying to make "a cast." it does not make a cast. Some guys go: "Oh, man! Jesus Christ, I love the way that hand is wrapped; it looks like you can knock down a wall..." Yes, you can, because it's wrapped properly. The problem with trainers today, they don't protect their fighters' hands, I do, I do it in every fight, and most good trainers do. This thing about Felix Trinidad having his hands wrapped wrong or improperly is a FLAT OUT LIE. You have inspectors in the dressing room, we have to trust those people because they are professionals and anyone who says anything different is stupid. 4.- Referee Jorge Alonso BRC: As a referee I know that you check some of the equipment the boxer wears, do you also check the gloves to see if they are irregular in any way? JA: We check the gloves, we feel the gloves, but remember when we get the boxer in the ring, he already has his gloves on. In Florida, they have inspectors that supervise the wrapping and approve of the wrapping. What I feel for, when I feel the gloves is to make sure that first of all, the knot is in the back part of the hand, right underneath, where there is no rub, no big knots when they tie the gloves and that the tape covers the knot itself and the tie. I also check that the impact area of the glove is in good condition, that it doesn't have any soft spots where you can't feel the knuckles. In the past, I have eliminated gloves for having been used before, they were very soft and you can feel the boxer's knuckles with your finger; in those cases you don't let those gloves go on to the fight. As far as the wrap itself, we don't actually see it. In Florida we have inspectors that handle that. BRC: When you refereed Trinidad vs. Thiam, and based on your many years of experience, did you see, did you detect anything, anything at all that now -looking back on it and based on the grave accusations that have been made- did you detect anything that may now seem irregular to you? JA: No, looking back, I don't see anything irregular. I checked the gloves, in the ring, and I didn't notice any irregularities as to the way the gloves felt when I checked them, they were tied properly. I didn't see anything improper with the gloves, however I don't know about the hands wrap, but I have a tremendous confidence in the inspectors in Florida. We probably have one of the most experienced team of inspectors in Florida and I say that with a lot of pride. I seriously doubt that they would allow any improprieties as to wrappings in a fight in the state of Florida; and specially the guys here in South Florida they are very, very experienced inspectors.