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Lem’s latest: Rosado calls Golovkin’s gloves ‘suspect’

Fighters Network
25
Oct

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ATLANTIC CITY — On Thursday, Philadelphia’s Gabriel Rosado labeled “supect” the 10-ounce Grant brand gloves WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin wore during his bloody, seventh-round knockout win over Rosado in January.

A 27-year-old whose seven-fight winning streak, including five knockouts, ended at the hands of Golovkin (27-0, 24 knockouts), Rosado (21-6, 13 KOs) accused his conqueror of wearing gloves whose padding was thinner over the knuckles than those he wore.



“I’m not saying that he’s not fighting with 10-ounce gloves, but when I noticed them, them s–ts were skinny as s–t [across the knuckles.] Mine had more cushion on the knuckles, and his had a little less. When he hit me in the first round, it felt different,” said Rosado, during a roundtable discussion at Caesars Hotel in advance of Saturday night’s clash with WBO 160-pound titleholder Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (29-0, 21 KOs) at Boardwalk Hall.

“He only hit me with a jab, but it felt like a bat hitting the top of my dome. When he hit me, I could straight feel the wraps. You don’t really start feeling the wraps untiil it’s like the ninth or 10th round when the gloves start breaking down and in. But first round, you don’t start feeling the wraps [underneath.] You get hit, you just feel that thud. So when he was hitting me, it was more of that type of an impact. I got cut twice in the same eye. … Them gloves are suspect as s–t … even though they’re not illegal, it is what it is.”

Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, of K2 Managment, and Golovkin’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, dispute Rosado’s claims, saying that both fighters’ gloves were approved by New York State Athletic Commission chairman, Melvina Lathan, and her staff.

“That’s absolutely not true,” said Loeffler. “They’re not thinner across the knuckles. Floyd Mayweather uses the same gloves that Gennady uses, and Floyd hasn’t knocked someone out in a while, so it’s not the gloves, it’s the person’s power inside of the gloves.”

“Grant sends those same gloves to Floyd Mayweather, and I’m not knocking Floyd by saying that. Floyd’s out-boxing people. But just because you wear custom colored gloves doesn’t mean that you’ll start knocking people out or start cutting people or whatever the case is.”

Loeffler and Sanchez said Rosado was offered a similar pair of gloves to those worn by Golovkin.

“They were complaining, and Abel said ‘you can use a second pair,’ and [Rosado’s] trainer, Billy Briscoe, said, ‘no, we’ll use these,'” said Loeffler. “Because, apparently, Gennady’s gloves for some reason didn’t fit as well as the ones they brought from Grant.”

Sanchez concurred.
“Billy Briscoe was there, his coach, and he had a couple of people with him. So we were having a rules meeting, and we were getting ready to try the gloves on, and they said, Gabriel’s gloves were also Grants. We started trying them on, and Billy made a comment about the difference. So, I said, they’re both Grants, they’re both [10 ounces,] Melvina looked at them. The supervisor looked at them, and they gave them the okay,” said Sanchez.

“So there was no issue. So I said, with Melvina present, and the supervisor present, ‘you’re welcome to use our second set.’ So they were welcome to use our second pair, because we had brought two pair, and they had brought two pair also. So Billy went through a 10-to-15-minute try-on session with the gloves, and then decides that he didn’t want to use our gloves. They would have absolutely been able to use a pair of gloves that were identical to ours.”

Golovkin will be after his 15th consecutive stoppage victory on Nov. 2 when he meets Brooklyn-based middleweight Curtis Stevens, whose promoter, Kathy Duva, of Main Events, has promoted fights involving Rosado in the past.

“We have our attorney [Pat English,] who is an absolute expert on gloves. So we’ll go to the weigh-in, and we’ll look at the gloves, and as long as they’re approved, sealed and packaged like they’re supposed to be, we won’t have any problems,” said Duva. “It’s the the fist in the glove that matters. We will inspect the gloves as we typically do at the weigh-in … If there is something amiss, then we’ll certainly say something, but I don’t anticipate any problems.”

SHANE MOSLEY-KELL BROOK ANYONE?

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said he has received an inquiry from English promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sports regarding a bout involving 42-year-old three-division titlewinner Shane Mosley (47-8-1, 39 KOs) and welterweight Kell Brook (30-0, 20 KOs) should the latter get beyond Saturday’s bout with former 147-pound beltholder Vyacheslav Senchenko (34-1, 23 KOs).

“I did get an e-mail from Eddie Hearn to see if, assuming that if Kell Brook wins, if Shane would interested in fighting Kell Brook,” said Schaefer. “I will be discussing that with Shane and his team and see if that is something that he would like to do.”

A scheduled Oct. 23 bout between Mosley and 154-pound rival Anthony Mundine was scrapped due to a breach of contract by Mundine’s promoter, Vlad Warton, of Millennium Events.

ANDY RUIZ JR., FELIX VERDEJO ADDED TO MANNY PACQUIAO-BRADON RIOS CARD

Mexican heavyweight Andy Ruiz Jr. (20-0, 14 KOs), 24, will pursue his seventh stoppage victory against New York’s Tor Hamer (21-2, 14 KOs), and Puerto Rican lightweight Felix Verdejo (8-0, 6 KOs), 20, will face an opponent to be determined on the undercard of the 147-pound bout between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios on Nov. 24 in Macau, China (Nov. 23 in the western hemisphere).

Also on the card is IBF featherweight titleholder Evgeny Gradovich against former titleholder Billy Dib in a rematch of Gradovich’s split-decision victory for the title in March, and flyweight Zou Shiming, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and one-time bronze winner, against Mexico’s Juan Toscano.

“This card is really a tribute to the fact that boxing is a global sport, and that boxers are coming from all over the world. I think that we will enhance the sport of boxing, what we’re doing has an international stature about it, because, believe me, that is the future,” said Top Rank CEO Bob Arum.

“The future is not only matching people from one or two countries, the future is matching people from around the world. Whether it’s the Philippines, or America, with Brandon Rios, or Australia, or Puerto Rico, or China, these people represent the future of this sport.”

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]

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