Floyd Mayweather Jr. Objects to Maidana Camp Everlast MX Boxing Gloves: Says No Padding, Already Broken in
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not happy with the gloves his opponent proposed for their fight Saturday night. He says they are too thin.
Mayweather and Marcos Maidana were at the weigh-in event Friday night and as customary the boxers tried to agree on the gloves they will use for their bout.
One of Mayweather's chief advisers even claimed the fight was off.
Maidana proposed a customized blue Everlast MX Boxing glove. Mayweather argued loudly that he would not fight with those gloves.
"Ain't no padding in the gloves," Mayweather said, according to footage of the scene recorded by Fighthype.com. "It's already broken in."
The Nevada Athletic Commission took a look at the gloves and ruled they were not allowed, according to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer.
Mayweather said he was afraid of "ending up like a vegetable" if that glove would have been used. He tried on the glove and said he could feel the outline of his knuckles.
Maidana's camp altered the MX glove, using a combination of horse hair and foam. This glove would be approved by the commission.
Still, Mayweather objected. This time he said the glove was back-loaded, having more stuffing near the wrist than the knuckle.
"There's a dispute and it will get figured out but we're not fighting with those gloves," Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe told the New York Daily News. "There wasn't any padding [in the gloves]."
Ellerbe continued to say that Mayweather would not fight in those gloves and later said "No, we're not fighting tomorrow."
Schaefer told reporters that the glove dispute will be resolved and the fight will go on.
"They're still talking about it but everything will be worked out," Schaefer said. "I am absolutely confident that it will all be worked out."
Schaefer thinks this all could have been avoided if gloves were decided in contracts much earlier than 24 hours before a fight.
"These days you see all these fancy made gloves being used by fighters and I think the commission is probably going to be implementing some new rules as well where if somebody wants to use custom sized gloves they're going to have to be presented to the commission way before the weigh in," Schaefer said. "So that the opposing camp can look at it and you can avoid these types of disputes."
Maidana is younger than Mayweather, but still has managed 31 knockouts, compared to Mayweather's 26.
The Showtime pay-per-view begins at 9 p.m. ET, but the Mayweather-Maidana fight likely won't start until 11 p.m. ET.