Before it becomes too late, Freddie Roach has urged ring officials to take a much closer look at the way Marco Antonio Barrera?s hands are wrapped inside the dressing room.
?I?m going to raise a big issue if they (officials) let him do what they want in wrapping those hands,? said Roach, who warned of an irregularity in the wrapping of Barrera?s hands.
?Sometimes they have trouble getting his hands inside the gloves,? added Roach, Manny Pacquiao?s chief trainer, with just 12 days left before the Las Vegas showdown.
?The last time Barrera fought Erik Morales, and they were fighting with Winning gloves (Pacquiao uses Cleto), they had to cut Barrera?s gloves to get his hands inside. I said ?you got to be kidding??? he said.
Roach said it?s not the first time he?s raising the issue.
?I made an issue out of this when Barrera beat my guy Johnny Tapia (by unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in 2002). And what I was arguing with the commission was the illegal hand-wrapping.?
Roach quoted first-hand reports saying Barrera?s handlers use too much gauze and tape on the hands that it?s ?almost feels like a cement cast? before they are gloved and signed by fight officials.
?I think there?s a maximum length of the tape but you should use them within reason to protect the hand. I can live with that,? added Roach, who knows an illegal wrap when he sees or feels one.
?Honestly, if you look at Barrera?s hands the edge of that wrap is already too far from his knuckles. But they let him do it. And I don?t believe in that,? he added.
Roach said the first thing he?d do when Team Pacquiao gets to Vegas on Monday of fight week is to inform the (Nevada) commission of the possible situation.
?I?d tell them to tell Barrera to protect your hands within reason. I can live with that but not that crazy stuff because they always seem to have trouble putting Barrera?s hands inside the gloves,? he said.
Roach said he doesn?t know who does the wrapping for Barrera. But for Pacquiao, for this fight, it would be no less than Joe Chavez, one of the best, if not the best, in the business.
?I mold it to the hand. I use my imagination to think of ways to wrap a hand. I make changes. You have to protect their hands. You wouldn?t send a soldier to war with a dirty rifle,? Chavez once said.
Chavez, also one of the finest cutmen in the sport, has worked Pacquiao?s corner twice against Erik Morales and once against Hector Velasquez, and never has had any bloody experience with the Filipino. Literally, Pacquiao will be in good hands come fight time.
