By Mark Vester
Before every major fight these days - there is some controversy. Trainer Freddie Roach lodged a verbal protest with the Nevada Commission, claiming that Oscar De La Hoya illegally wraps his hands.
Roach said that when he trained De La Hoya for last May's fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, he witnessed De La Hoya's cornerman Joe Chavez illegally wrap the fighter's hands by using a two-inch-wide brown medical tape to add cushion. Roach said the tape is too thick and causes an unfair advantage to his fighter, Manny Pacquiao.
"The tape between the fingers becomes like a piece of rope, and that can cause a cut for sure," Roach said to The Los Angeles Times. "Oscar's people were saying he's got away with it 20 times here and I said, 'Oscar's a prima donna, but he's not going to get away with it now.' Rules are rules. Oscar wraps illegally, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to win."
According to The Times, the commission's executive officer, Keith Kizer, along with chief inspector Tony Lazo and his assistant Alex Ybarra, gave De La Hoya's brown tape the green light, but also said that Chavez has to cut the tape in half to one inch when he rolls it up between the fingers. Chavez claims the tape helps protect Oscar's hands and does not make his punches harder.
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