Margarito and the wraps

[Cressa121]

Interesting post by Cressa121 on the "Dempsey; 3 years without a fight" thread regarding the effectiveness of plaster of Paris handwraps. Apparently, in an experiment in 1964, it was determined that after a few punches the plaster would crumble inside the gloves and do more damage to the guy throwing the punches than to the guy catching them.

.....I would ask how that study was conducted. Because if that was "fact" then why would trainers continue to load their fighters wraps

The test was to do with the Dempsey-Willard fight and Doc Kearns' explanation as to how he'd loaded Dempsey's wraps. Here's the excerpt from the article:

According to Kearns this is how he loaded Dempsey’s gloves, “I quickly wound on Dempsey’s bandages under Moynahan’s vigilant inspection. After I finished with the wrappings I turned to Jimmy DeForest, my trainer, and pointed to the water bucket. “Give me that sponge well soaked with water”, I ordered, “I want to keep the kids hands cool.” The sponge, dripping with water, made a sloshing sound as I clamped it to the bandages on Dempsey’s hands. In a moment they were drenched through. “Now the talcum powder,” I directed DeForest, and he passed me the innocent looking can. I sprinkled the contents heavily over the bandages.” Moyhanan made no comment. Dempsey, who was entirely innocent of what had happened, stood there in almost a stupor. I had to smile as a call came to enter the ring.”

That is how Kearns said he loaded Dempsey’s gloves without the fighter knowing anything about it. But is such a thing possible? One must first ask is it possible for Dempsey to have entered into the ring without gloves, which the film and still photos clearly prove, and the referee and principles not noticing the hardening substance on his hand wraps? More importantly is plaster of paris a good and efficient way to load a pair of gloves?

Boxing Illustrated conducted an experiment to test whether it was possible to use plaster of paris successfully under fighting conditions. The results were reported in the May 1964 issue of BI, pp 20-24, 66. Hugh Benbow and Perry Payne (manager and trainer of Cleveland Williams) used plaster of paris on Cleveland's hands and reenacted what Kearns said occurred in Dempsey's dressing room. After 35 minutes of toasting to reenact the 114-degree heat of Toledo that day, Cleveland Williams hit the heavy bag five times. Benbow examined the wraps and found that the plaster had cracked and crumbled. "This stuff." said Cleve, "wouldn't do anybody any good."

The Boxing Illustrated test proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the plaster of paris would not have held up after the first punch, it would have crumbled and left chunks in his mitts and every punch thereafter would have been quite painful and there is little doubt he would have broken his hands. The inventor of the product issued a statement as to the impossibility of using plaster of paris without breaking all the bones in the hands. Dempsey’s hands were not broken and he continued to punch with authority with both hands. This alone dispels the idea that Dempsey’s gloves were loaded with plaster of paris.

I think with Margarito it was small blocks of plaster that were in his wraps, not the wraps themselves that were hardened, or am I wrong there? Also, in the Boxing Illustrated test the time the plaster had to properly harden was short, to try and replicate Kearns' recollection. With Margarito the blocks would have had longer to harden so my be less susceptible to crumble? I'm not that clued up on the make up of plaster of paris, so I don't know whether it would always crumble or the length of time it has to harden has a bearing on whether it does crumble or not. I think what carpetrepairhouston posted is right, that they'd be loaded differently now in comparison to 1919.

On to the main question from the thread, I want to believe Margarito is innocent and hadn't used them before, but that would be naive. Just because its the first time he was caught doesn't mean its the first time he'd tried it. I guess only he and his trainer will know for certain whether it was an innocent mix up or they'd tried it before, but I find it hard to believe that he'd choose to load his gloves for the first time against a 38 year old Shane Mosley when he'd just been in with an unbeaten, prime fighter who had recently beaten Mosley.