By Mark Vester

Before Shane Mosley (46-5, 39KOs) stopped Antonio Margarito (37-6, 27KOs) in the ninth round of their action-packed bout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, HBO announced to the televised audience that Margarito's hands were found to be illegally wrapped and had to be re-wrapped three times to make them legal.

According to the HBO announcers, Mosley's trainer Nazim Richardson,  was in Margarito's dressing room to observe the wrapping of his hands. He saw some kind of substance in Margarito's wrappings that was not suppossed to be there. He alerted someone from the California State Athletic Commission. A person from the commission checked Margarito's wraps and agreed with Richardson, noting that a substance had been used on the wraps which made them harden into a plaster like shell. The allegation by Richardson, and from what HBO had reported, is the substance was being used to harden the wraps to add more punching power to Margarito's shots.

During the live broadcast, HBO continued to ask the repeated question of whether or not Margarito had used the same substance on his wraps prior to entering the ring for last July's knockout win over Miguel Cotto. The incident is sure to put a black cloud above Margarito for some time.

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