Tarver worried about getting plastered

Paul Kent
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July 16, 2011 12:00AM

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HOSTILITIES in the fight game took a turn for the genuine yesterday when Antonio Tarver's trainer, Buddy McGirt, suggested Danny Green might be loading his gloves with illegal plaster of Paris.

Tarver has promised he will walk out of their IBO cruiserweight title fight as late as when the fighters are being gloved up if he believes Green's hands are illegally wrapped.

The accusation has brought a fresh edge to the tension between the fighters ahead of Wednesday's fight at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

McGirt was called in to prepare Tarver only two weeks ago and said one of his chief responsibilities is to ensure nothing illegal occurs in the dressing room.
"The first thing I am going to do," McGirt said yesterday, picking up a napkin, "is go to his wraps and go like that."

He snapped the napkin.

"If there's dust, the fight's off," he said. "And I want to see the gloves come out of the plastic bag in the dressing room.

"You can't tell me 'We took them out down the hall'. As Antonio says, 'If they do, bye, bye, we're going home'. If it don't happen, kiss our ass on Star Search, we're goin' home."

McGirt is in Australia after Tarver called him to say he needed him.
Since arriving, McGirt has taken calls from Roy Jones Jr - who Green beat in 2009 and who promotes McGirt's son, Buddy Jr - telling him to be careful.
He said others have called too, including some associated with another Green opponent, BJ Flores. Flores demanded two officials attend while Green's hands were wrapped before their fight.

"When I told people I was coming here everybody has been calling me saying watch this, watch that, don't trust them, don't do this, don't do that," McGirt said.

Jones went back to America after his first round knock out claiming Green's hands were illegally wrapped. He has also claimed Green's wraps were covered in plaster of Paris, and he filed a complaint with the NSW Combat Sports Authority demanding an independent investigation. His handlers had originally complained before the fight about Green's wraps, forcing them to again be inspected and ruled legal, with Green claiming it was an attempt to unsettle him.
There has never been any evidence provided or even considered that Green did anything illegal.

A sprinkle of dust from Green's wraps, as McGirt fears, would suggest that plaster of Paris which, once inside the glove and when the hands start to sweat - if not with a little added water, to quicken the affect - soon solidify into a plaster cast like that used to protect broken limbs.

"If they want to get too cagey and start causing unnecessary drama for no reason, then dust and moths will be flying out of their wallets," Green said.
Green is irritated by the accusation, but not surprised. Two years ago Antonio Margarito was caught with loaded hand wraps in the dressing room before fighting Shane Mosley for the WBA welterweight title. Mosley's trainer Naazim Richardson caught the cheating during wrapping and Margarito, after a hiding by Mosley, was later suspended.

The most famous incidence of dressingroom *******y involved trainer, "Panama" Al Lewis, who was suspended for life after removing stuffing from Luis Resto's gloves against Billy Collins in 1983, Resto later also revealing his wraps were also laced with plaster of Paris.
So long as no dust sprinkles from Green's wraps and the fight goes ahead, Green (31-3) should prove too strong for Tarver (28-6) and become the first to stop him.

However McGirt said Tarver is more focused for this fight than he has been in recent fights and promises to attack Green's greatest weakness, angles.
"We're gonna make him think he's on a merry-go-round," McGirt said.

 

Its a good way to break the ice! , alot of people also forget Tarvers shoulder injury he had been nursing for a bit over a year. Wonders if that will play any part in the fight. Its not really been mention much around here. Hyder come out today saying all these champs want Danny, well the cat is out of the bag now so i wonder what they will do. Time to fight someone whos not approaching their 50s and is a current CW champ. Time is running out and the public are becoming more and more aware of this circus act.