It surprises me (upon thinking about it) to have never seen a knee brace or other orthopaedic aid worn into combat by a boxer. Certainly ring attire - at least in the professional ranks - is fairly unregulated in the modern era, with people wearing all manner of nonsense beyond the standard velour such as frilly skirts made of odd materials, and sporting all sorts of hairstyles, with foreign objects in them even. There was a time not too long ago when athletic commissions didn't even allow a man to wear so much as a short beard, so it's definitely pretty liberal now. However, you never see somebody wearing a knee brace during a match. Certainly the odds are against the likelihood that 0% of those we see competing have any wear/strain injuries on their joints that would in other contexts require them to use a brace for even low-impact activities. There's an awful lot of footwork involved in boxing, shifting weight between feet, pivoting, etc. People with chronic joint issues would almost certainly need some type of orthopaedic brace or other aid to ensure safety in going through these motions in training, let alone competition... Is it that they are banned in the pros and/or ams? If so, why? It's not like the knees are used in boxing anyway, it isn't Muay Thai. Even in a boxing clinch it would be inappropriate for one opponent's knee to touch any part of the other's body. Are there examples of people using them that just slipped past my notice? :huh
I remember Valuev using them before. Might have been the Barrett fight Edit: He used them in the first Ruiz fight aswell
Jorge Arce wore a brace on atleast one of his knees for his first fight with Hussein Hussein. I believe for international amateur competition your allowed to wear a brace as long as it doesn't have metal or hard plastic in it. For just local club shows they're more liberal. I have one with hard plastic on it and I'm sure they would let me wear it, but just to avoid any potential hassle I wore a soft one in my last fight when I was getting over a knee injury.
braces are not allowed, sometimes they are overlooked because they aren't a big deal but in amateur boxing they should not be on.
A guy on my amatuer team wears on, even in competition. Then some fighter on the undercard of the Cotto-Paq fight wore one, can't think of his name though.
Here we go, this was Andre Ward Vs. Henry Buchanon, February 2009: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3356/3265883492_ed90c23a32.jpg
I remember George Foreman commenting on a fighter wearing them in a pro fight, but for the life of me can't remember which one.