Meanwhile, Margarito’s position boils down to the following: “Capetillo was solely responsible for acquiring the gauze to make the knuckle pads. Margarito was not present when Capetillo prepared the knuckle pads. Margarito was totally unaware that anything improper had been inserted in the knuckle pads.”
Is that possible?
Yes.
The inserts certainly weren’t visible to Margarito. We know that because Naazim Richardson (who was looking for irregularities) saw no visual evidence of them.
Nor is it a given that Margarito would have felt them.
Emanuel Steward, Freddie Roach, Don Turner, and Dan Birmingham have been honored as “Trainer of the Year” nine times by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Pat Burns trained Jermain Taylor for both of his victories over Bernard Hopkins and is a former police detective. Naazim Richardson trains Shane Mosley and is the man who discovered the illegal inserts in Margarito’s knuckle pads.
Their thoughts are instructive:
Dan Birmingham: “My guys watch me closely when I wrap. But
what you’re talking about here happens pretty quickly. The pad goes on and then you put more gauze over it. So sure; it’s possible that the fighter wouldn’t know.”
Pat Burns: “Some fighters don’t pay attention when their hands are being wrapped. They’re listening to music or talking to someone or watching a television monitor. And even if they’re watching, they’re not wondering what’s in the knuckle pad. If I wanted to put a few layers of hardened gauze inside a fighter’s knuckle pads, I could and the fighter would never know.”
Freddie Roach: “If I did something like that, which I wouldn’t,
I think I could do it without my fighter knowing. And if I was the fighter; Eddie Futch [who trained Roach] would never have done something like that. But if he had,
I think he could have kept it secret from me.”
Don Turner: “I wouldn’t do it. I don’t cheat. But
if I wanted to, unless what I was putting into the knuckle pad was very heavy, I could do it in a way that the fighter wouldn’t know. Even if the fighter is watching me wrap, he might not know because he wouldn’t see or feel the difference.”
Emanuel Steward: “My experience has been that a fighter watches very closely when his hands are being taped. But
in a situation like this, it’s definitely possible that a trainer could put an insert in the knuckle pad without the fighter knowing. When I get in the dressing room before a fight, one of the first things I do is make two knuckle pads and put them on the table. I don’t put them in my bag. I leave them out on the table, and so does every other trainer I know of. So I have a hard time believing that Capetillo took the wrong knuckle pads out of his bag by mistake. But the fighter doesn’t watch me make the knuckle pads. A lot of times, the fighter isn’t even there when I make them. So the fighter wouldn’t know if I put something inside the pads unless I told him or the pads were heavy enough that he could feel a difference.”
Naazim Richardson: “I’m the wrong person to ask about this. If a guy is driving a truck and tries to run my daughter over and misses, don’t ask me what the punishment should be.
But to be fair, yes, a fighter might not know.”
Could Antonio Margarito have been complicit in the handwrap scandal?
Yes; but we don’t know that he was. And there’s no way that a fighter in his situation can prove his innocence.
If Margarito knew that his knuckle pads contained illegal inserts, a lifetime ban from boxing would be warranted. But a fighter’s career shouldn’t be terminated on a guess.
Antonio Margarito and the Handwrap Issue
no wonder he keeps talkin "im the A side" mix that wit the WBC sayin winner has to fight winner of #shookboys & la whatever the fuk, throw on top cinnamon gas issues. 
fukkery
@ at 97-3 split Canelo gonna give ggg for the lineal middleweight title defended at 155.15lbs
