Margarito’s wraps were loaded

Mar

The hand wraps worn by Antonio Margarito before his fight against Shane Mosley on Jan. 24 in Los Angeles contained calcium and sulfur, two ingredients of plaster of Paris, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Times cited a report from a California Department of Justice laboratory dated March 19.

The wraps were confiscated by the California State Athletic Commission after Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson, noticed in Margarito’s dressing room before the fight that the gauze pads inserted into the hand wraps were unusually hard.

Margarito, using legal pads, was knocked out by Mosley in the ninth round. The Mexican fighter and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, then had their licenses revoked for at least one year at a California commission hearing on Feb. 10.

“It would’ve been crazy if they’d come back with anything different,” Richardson said of the findings. “I know for a fact the pads had something in them. I was there. I was there and a commissioner was there. So, no, this isn’t a surprise.”

Karen Chappelle, the attorney who presented the state’s case at the hearing, also wasn’t surprised.

“The commission's decision appears to be supported by that report,” Chappelle told the Times. “The only things that are allowed in hand wraps are gauze and tape and those items aren't gauze and tape.”

Neither Margarito nor Capetillo have appealed the revocation of their licenses in California, which in effect means they can’t take part in a fight anywhere in the United States.