Illegal substance removed from Margarito's gloves
LOS ANGELES – A controversy erupted about a half-hour prior to Antonio Margarito's defense of his WBA welterweight title against Shane Mosley on Saturday, before 20,820 at the Staples Center.
Dean Lohuis, the interim co-executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, said an illegal substance was found in Margarito's hand wraps. A boxer's hands are wrapped with tape and gauze to protect them before he puts on his gloves.
"It was a plaster-like substance," said Golden Boy Promotions attorney Stephen Espinoza. "It was bagged up by the commission and taken as evidence."
Nazim Richardson, Mosley's trainer, complained that Margarito's wraps looked too large with a lump. An inspector for the commission agreed and ordered the wraps to be cut off and then rewrapped.
That is when the illegal substance was discovered. HBO analyst Larry Merchant, who was in the dressing room area doing interviews, said he had been told it was some kind of a wet substance.
Eric Gomez, the matchmaker for Mosley's Golden Boy Promotions, said that it was the same material used to make plaster of paris.
Top Rank president Todd duBoef, who promotes Margarito, said he was told the wrap was simply gauze that was balled up by the knuckles. DuBoef said that when Richardson objected, Margarito's camp was happy to comply and rewrap.
Margarito's hands were wrapped by his longtime trainer, Javier Capetillo.
