In the immediate aftermath of the thrilling back-and-forth battle between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao, trainer Freddie Roach would cut the gloves off the hands of the ?Pac Man? and move towards Pacquiao’s promoter, Murad Muhammad.
One of the bigger story lines of that fight was the issue of what gloves the two participants would be using that March night. Pacquiao preferred to sport his usual ‘Cleto-Reyes’ gloves, only to find out that the contract stipulated that ‘Winning’ gloves – the choice of Morales – were to be used.
In the ongoing battle between Roach and Muhammad, this was another chapter in their acrimonious relationship. The trainer believes that once again, the promoter had sold out their fighter.
“I stuck the gloves in his face,” recalled Roach, who then told Muhammad, “These are f**kin’ pillows you a**hole. You should’ve picked the right gloves.”
There’s no doubt in Roach’s mind that the choice of gloves played a role in the outcome of the bout, which they lost via unanimous decision by scores of 115-113 on all three scorecards.
“Definitely,” stated Roach. “Before the fight, when we knew we had to wear the ?Winning?s, I had to keep Manny’s mind focused, and I had to say they didn’t make a difference. In actuality, you either fight with pillows or you fight with gloves. The ‘Reyes’ are half the size of the ‘Winning’ gloves and Manny landed some good shots and he hurt him a couple times; maybe with the smaller gloves he may have knocked him out.”
While Roach believes that from a physical standpoint wearing ‘Reyes’ gloves may have made a difference, from a psychological standpoint, he couldn’t press the issue too much, for fear that it could weigh heavily on his fighter?s mind.
“The thing is, we could’ve filed a lawsuit,” Roach says. “It wouldn’t have been settled till after the fight, though. And I figured rather than wait for the last minute if we had lost the case and just all of a sudden the last day, say, ‘Manny, we’re wearing ‘Winning’ instead of ‘Reyes’, we might as well just get used to the ‘Winning’ the best we can and do what we can, because to change the day of the fight wouldn’t have been good for the fighter.”
What’s ironic about this brouhaha over gloves is that the Nevada State Athletic Commission had just ruled a few weeks before Morales-Pacquiao that from this point forward, fighters could wear any brand of approved gloves that they wanted in a fight – unless it was contracted in the bout agreement, like it was for Morales-Pacquiao.
What’s even more ironic is that much of this new ruling centers around the history of Morales.
In 2000, before their first classic slugfest, Marco Antonio Barrera and Morales argued about the brand of glove that was to be used. Barrera preferred ‘Reyes’ and Morales his customary ‘Winning’ gloves.
“There was a big controversy,” recalled Marc Ratner, the executive director of the NSAC. “We flipped a coin and Barrera’s people won and we wore Reyes.” Ratner says that Barrera was so adamant about wearing his choice of gloves that, “He was not going to fight even if he lost the coin flip.”
Fast forward to last Thanksgiving weekend, when Barrera and Morales completed their historic trilogy and there were more issues related to the gloves. This time around, with Morales being the defending WBC/IBF junior lightweight titlist, the contract stated that ‘Winning’ gloves were to be worn.
“The ‘Winning’ gloves, the way the wrists are made, Barrera couldn’t get his hands in it,” pointed out Ratner. “So we had to rearrange the sponge. We kept the integrity of the glove but we were going crazy trying to accommodate all of this stuff.”
And what did the recently deceased Johnny Cochran say about gloves that don’t fit? Well, anyway, this was one of the major reasons that the new rule was recently implemented.
But the question is, is there that much of a difference between gloves made by ‘Winning’, ‘Cleto-Reyes’, ‘Grant’ and ‘Everlast’?
“They make a physical difference; there’s truth to that,” says noted trainer and ESPN2 color commentator Teddy Atlas. ?There are some gloves that have a seam that stands out and you’re more prone to get cut with that kind of glove. And then there are gloves that are tighter and less cushiony and there’s more of a chance of getting a cut because of that.
“Then some gloves are tighter, less structured and there’s more chance at getting a hand injury because of that. So yeah, there’s definitely a difference in the structure and the make-up of gloves.”
Atlas points out that the impact a punch may have on an opponent is just one of the key components that separate one glove from other. The safety of the hands, distribution of impact and being prone to cause cuts are also key factors.
Atlas is on the Everlast board of directors and helped redesign the company?s gloves and other boxing apparatus. The company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on researching material, getting the input of noted hand surgeon Dr. Charles Melone, and doing diagnostic tests on their equipment.
Their goal was to create a glove that took as much impact away from the hand and the recipient of the on-coming punch, within the brutal realms of the sport. It’s a fine line between protecting the boxers and sanitizing the sport.
“I was comfortable putting my endorsement and my name behind that glove,” says Atlas.
‘Reyes’ gloves have a long-standing reputation as being a ‘puncher?s glove’.
“Oh, yeah,” without question, says the great Sugar Ray Leonard. “It’s the way the glove is designed; it favors the puncher. But it depends on how you look at it; it could also favor the boxer. I had very small hands so the ‘Reyes’ glove benefited me from that point of view. My speed was a plus, so I used them.”
And Leonard says that he never really experienced any hand problems using that brand.
“No, I had hand problems as an amateur,” he says.”But because I was able to use more gauze (in the pros) it pretty much saved my career.”
Diego Corrales, one of the premier offensive fighters in the game, also prefers ‘Reyes?.
“I love Reyes to death,” he states. “They’re puncher?s gloves; they’re made a certain way and that’s what I like about them.”
Corrales says what he most likes about this brand is that most of the weight is in the wrist area, giving him great support on that joint, while giving him a nice, clean hitting surface.
Last year when he faced Acelino Freitas, Corrales was none too pleased when he found out a day before the fight that he would be forced to wear ‘Everlast’ gloves since that was the choice of Freitas, who was the defending WBO lightweight champion at the time. He would eventually stop ‘Popo’ in ten rounds, but he feels strongly that with his choice of gloves, that he would’ve stopped him sooner.
Corrales says now that he makes sure that he is allowed to wear ‘Reyes’ for all his fights, but in the gym, ‘Chico’ does use a pair of ‘Everlast’ training gloves.
But while some strongly believe that ‘Reyes’ gloves do amp up a puncher?s power, others aren’t so sure.
“If a fighter?s got a punch, I don’t care what kind of gloves you put on him,” says Joe Chavez, a mainstay around the Southern California gyms who has sold boxing equipment from the back of his car for years. ?They labeled them (‘Reyes’) that way because they use them a lot on TV.”
Chavez points out that the composition of the ?Reyes? gloves has changed dramatically in the last few decades. In the 50’s, the padding was made up of mostly horsehair. Now, it’s a combination of foam padding and horsehair. Most gloves nowadays have gone away from the horsehair padding.
Chavez, who is a noted hand-wrapper that was hired by Oscar De La Hoya, says he can recall many times when fighters in the dressing room would hit their gloves on the wall to break up the internal padding before a fight.
What Chavez says about a puncher being a puncher, regardless of what he has on his hands is true. Felix Trinidad has had great success in starching his opponents with a wide variety of gloves, from ‘Everlast’ to ‘Reyes’ to ‘Grant’. But not all gloves are created equal.
“I’ve got a scale and all the gloves don’t weigh the same,” says Chavez, pointing out that since gloves are hand-made individually, there is human error involved.
And he also mentions that, “Nobody can make a glove like Mexico. I don’t know what they cure the leather with but they can stretch it all the way and it won?t tear.”
Grant Elvis Phillips, who designed his own brand of gloves, ‘Grant’, also believes that the myth of a ‘puncher?s glove’ is just that – a myth.
“That’s something that’s been made out by a lot of people and it’s a very untrue statement,” says Phillips, whose gloves are worn by such prizefighters as Winky Wright, Cory Spinks, Roy Jones, Kermit Cintron, Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson and Evander Holyfield. “Anyone that’s a decent puncher will tell you that it doesn’t really make a difference what you’re wearing. If you can, you’re going to score a knockout. The only thing you won?t do is injure your hand while you’re doing it.”
‘Grant’ gloves have a reputation of protecting the hands well. Junior middleweight kingpin Wright says of the gloves, “I just like the way they feel on me and plus they really protect my hands. I’ve never had problems with them on.”
They also have a reputation for helping fighters out defensively with their shape. But Wright disputes that notion, “Nah, if you’re a good defensive fighter, you can wear anything and still be a good defensive fighter.”
When Wright faces Trinidad on May 14th, since neither fighter is the champion, both will get to wear their choice of glove, according to Gary Shaw, who represents Wright.
“Our glove is the safest glove out there,” says Phillips, who has been in the sport for nearly 30 years, as an amateur boxer, trainer and manager. As a kid, Phillips sold boxing equipment and has a large collection of old boxing gloves. “If you put a ‘Grant’ glove on and you tap your jaw with it and you put a ‘Reyes’ glove on, I guarantee you’d much rather prefer to get hit with a ‘Reyes’ glove.”
It was in ‘Grant’ gloves that Tarver would stop Jones with one punch last year during their rematch.
“It’s just a reputation that’s been built over time about Mexican gloves being the ‘puncher?s glove’ – ‘Grant’ gloves are made in Mexico,” Phillips points out.
‘Winning’ is a Japanese brand that has come into prominence the last few years and is the preferred glove of both Morales and Floyd Mayweather Jr – two boxers that have had problems with their hands in the past.
“He prefers ‘Winning’ because they’re more straight-up and on his right-hand – one of his knuckles is bigger than the other one,” says Morales’ manager, Fernando Beltran. “So he prefers that type of glove because he feels more comfortable in them. Erik does prefer ‘Winning’ for the safety of his hands.”
Last year when he challenged Jesus Chavez for his WBC 130-pound belt, as the challenger, he was forced to wear ‘Reyes’.
“He hurt both hands in that fight,” says Beltran, while Morales reported no damage to the tools of his trade after his last bout, despite hitting his Filipino foe numerous times with hard punches.
Many will argue that if Morales had ‘Reyes’ mitts on that he would have done far more damage to Pacquiao and perhaps knocked him out, which is a strong possibility, but remember, for this fight it wasn’t as if both boxers had to wear the same brand of glove -unless of course, it was stipulated in the contract.
But this can easily be fixed, if they should have a rematch, Morales can wear ‘Winning’ and Pacquiao can have his ‘Reyes’ gloves. Right?
“Let me ask you one question,” says Beltran. “Who won the fight? Who needs who? Do you think I’m going to come to the table and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to start giving you this or that,’ in a negotiation?
“I would be dumb or retarded to give things away in a negotiation.”
Or just Murad Muhammad.
