Canelo Alvarez made to re-wrap his hands after Rocky Fielding’s team objected
SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ was made to re-wrap his hands by Rocky Fielding's team, the Brit's trainer revealed.
Before Canelo stopped Fielding inside three rounds to claim the WBA ‘regular’ super-middleweight title, the Mexican had to go through two takes of hand wrapping.
Speaking to , Fielding’s trainer Jamie Moore explained that he had noticed a fighter having tape wrapped numerously around their wrist and hands.
Otherwise known as ‘stacking’, the technique, which thickens the knuckle area, is banned in the state of New York, where Canelo beat Fielding.
Ex-European champion Moore explained that his assistant Nigel Travis raised the issue to the commission, and Canelo was subsequently forced to re-wrap his devastating tools.
Moore said: “As you can imagine because of the superstar he is, he gets the rub of the green.
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“I’d seen somebody getting wrapped up on DAZN, they put it on Twitter, I’d seen it earlier on and I said that’s not right in this state.
“They were wrapping the tape numerous times round the wrist and hand. It’s stacking, you’re not allowed to do it.
“We raised it as an issue, the commission agreed, said, ‘No, you’re right, you can’t do it.’ I sent Nige in and Nige got there, they’d already done it.
“So made them take it off, said ‘you’re not allowed to do that’. The commission agreed to take it off and then they done it again.
“No, take it off again. So they started going crazy. Sent five people into my room saying take the tape off his hand, I said no problem, I don’t want tape on.”
This was not the first time Canelo was hit with criticism of the way his hands were wrapped before a world title fight.
In September 2017, after Canelo and Gennady Golovkin fought to a controversial split-decision draw, GGG’s trainer, Abel Sanchez stated he was not happy with the tapping of the Mexican’s hands.
However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission deemed pre and post fight that Canelo’s hands were wrapped legally.
Although Golovkin was unlucky not to receive a victory that night, Canelo would have the last laugh as he won the rematch a year later in yet another close contest.
The 28-year-old's victory over Fielding to claim the understudy WBA world title meant the Mexican is now a three weight world champion.
Canelo joins Mexican boxing legends Julio Cesar Chavez, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez as fighters to win world titles in more than two weights.