King P
Legends Never Die
NAAZIM RICHARDSON RESPONDS TO JOPPY'S COMMENTS ON TRINIDAD'S WRAPS: "IT AIN'T LIKE THE MARGARITO THING"
Joppy always felt some kind of way about that and he said something to me about catching the thing with Tito. But the thing is this, Tito Trinidad deserves to be in the Hall of Fame because the way Tito got his hands wrapped was legal in other states. It wasn't legal in New York, but it was legal in other states," stated world-class trainer Naazim Richardson, who shared his thoughts on recents comments made by former middleweight champion William Joppy regarding Hall of Famer Felix "Tito" Trinidad. According to Joppy, Trinidad didn't deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame because he felt the multi-division champion used illegal hand wraps throughout his career.
It's an issue that had never been brought up until Trinidad faced future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins months after his dominant 5th-round stoppage of Joppy. Richardson found himself in the middle of a controversy prior to that fight when he noticed that the technique which Trinidad's father and trainer, Don Felix, used to wrap his hands was not in accordance with the rules of the New York State Athletic Commission. Though ultimately Trinidad was required to re-wrap his hands, Richardson clarified that at the time, the technique was still legal in several other states.
"If they said we were fighting him in New York, okay then, y'all have an argument, but they weren't talking about his hand wraps when they made the fight. So by them not making it an issue, because they fought him in New York too, he knocked you out, you gotta live with it," he explained. "See, the way Margarito was getting his hands wrapped, that shyt was illegal in MMA and every other sport and in every state. I can see if William [Joppy] was making that argument about Margarito, but with Tito, he just tried to wrap his hands...it could be an honest mistake."
Richardson added, "The Tito thing I think was more of ignorance. It was the fact that they were used to wrapping his hands like that all the time and most of the places you fight, like Vegas and everything, it's cool to wrap like that. So when they came to New York, they didn't think nothing of it. They just wrapped his hands the way they always wrap his hands. Well, we working by and abiding by the rules of New York, so I argued the case. But it ain't like the Margarito thing where he was blatantly trying to pull one off. One was ignorance and one was illegal."
There you have it. Now would you all please shut the fukk up