Naoya Inoue Vs. Stephen Fulton Weigh In and Face/Off (!!!)

It's a Japanese glove, that's why he prefers winning gloves.

 

Supposedly the craftsmanship is better than American made gloves. It's said that they excel at protecting hands, sure, but that could also be good for punching hard. The more they protect your hand, the harder you can punch, making you potentially more dangerous as a puncher. Also how protected your hands are also depend greatly on how you wrap your hands and how your style of hand wrap fit into the gloves. I jsut get the sense that Inoue's hand wraps are extremely tight in the glove. I'm not saying anything he's doing is illegal, but it's possible he has like mastered the art of hand wrapping and making the glove like an extention of the fist. So all these changes to gloves or how he's allowed to wrap his hands could be a factor. That said, I get that in Donaire 2, he wore Reyes and he stopped him early. While wearing winning, he was unable to stop Doniare, so that suggests that he only stopped him because he wore Reyes, but then again, maybe the gloves had nothing to do with it and Doniare just was older and his punch resistance wasn't the same, or Inoue was more motivated, etc.

 

Right, and Joker is making it seem like he specfically is going out of his way to use a softer glove. When in most of his fights those are the gloves he used. He wore Reyes in the Donaire rematch for some reason, but now he's back to using his regular gloves. I mean, if he really liked Reyes, surely he would use them in this fight. But he's not, so that suggests he prefers winning, the standard Japan fighter glove, and he's using his normal gloves once again. I just don't buy the idea that he's handicapping himself by wearing winning. It's quite possible that he's more comfortable with those gloves and despite the claim that they aren't a puncher's glove, they seem to work pretty well for him. Anyone know why he wore Reyes in the Donaire rematch?

 

It also has something to do with how your hands are wrapped as well. Inoue turned winning gloves into punchers gloves, it Is relatively unheard of really. Pac couldn't stop Morales with winning gloves, but stopped him twice with cleto reyes in the 2nd and 3rd fight. Let's see if Inoue agreeing to wrap his hands differently diminishes his punching power.

 

Oh yeah. Got it.

 

They both wore winning gloves the first time, then switched it up because they were going for knockouts in the rematch. Donaire wore Grant gloves, while Inoue the clito reyes.

 

It's an interesting point. Particularly if there are other examples of certain fighters not being able to stop the same fighter with winning vs reyes. But then again stoppages could be related to other factors, like Morales being older, losing punch resistance after the first fight, etc. Something to consider though. I guess we'll find out when they step into the ring.

 

Yeah that's definitely true, he also wears Mizuno trainers and apparel another Japanese sports brand.

 

That's good to know, and I wasn't aware of that twitter exchange. Thanks for the info. I just don't think Inoue is specifically trying to make a statement by using Winning gloves, since again, they are manufactured in Japan, they are the Japanese standard glove, so it makes sense for any Japanese fighter to use them. But I still want to understand why he wore Reyes in the Donaire rematch. And I'm guessing that fan who said that Fulton shouldn't let him wear Reyes probably was scared by what he did to Donaire in the rematch. But it's unclear at this point why he wore Reyes in the Donaire rematch, if that was his choice, Donaire's demand, or if (despite the stoppage result) if he actually prefers those vs Winning. That part is just speculation on your part, but maybe there's something to that.

 

LOL no I didn't say they were puncher's gloves, I just wouldn't characterize them as "pillows" like you did. I said that I get the sense that Inoue has like mastered the art of hand wraps and getting a tight fit into any glove he wears. But again it's unclear if he applied tape to his hands throughout his career or if that only happened in the Donaire rematch because he was wearing Reyes. That's what I'm trying to find out.

 

I can't wait till they're both in the ring. I'm hyped.

 

All this hand wrap gloves discussion just gets me more hyped. I wanna see how this all plays out.

 

I'm sure that if the JBC allows that kind of wrapping technique, he's been doing it his whole career.