People have been talking a lot about loaded hand-wraps, loaded gloves, gloves with the padding removed, illegal hand wrapping (too much tape and gauze or tape directly on the skin violating regulations), etc, etc.

How come there's never anyone even suggesting anything improper when some fighters carry the following inside their hands (like LITERALLY inside):



^ That's a m e t a l plate screwed directly into a bone in the hand (m e t a carpal) using screwnails.
(* never mind the oval shape on the left; that's just a thumb ring.)
The m e t a l plate is usually titanium or stainless steel.

MMA fighter Andre Arlovski has a m e t a l plate in his hand, so does Rich Franklin.

When a surgeon puts m e t a l in, he usually doesn't take it back out even after an injury is healed.
(unless they think the m e t a l is causing complications or are requested to remove it.)

Removing the m e t a l plate is another surgery; then the bone needs more time to heal to fill the screw holes, another deep surgical incision has be stitched and healed, possible infections can happen in any surgery PLUS fighters don't want to miss more time on a second surgery.
Point being the m e t a l plate usually stays.



^ Classic "boxer's fracture."


Some fighters like Frank Shamrock and Tim Sylvia carry a steel plate in their forearm, about 5 to 6 inches long (13 to 15 cm) just beneath the skin surface screwed into the ulna bone on the underside of the forearm.
Feel the underside of your forearm, and you can feel the bony surface from wrist all the way up the back to your elbow. That's the bone that Frank had broken.
He's outright said he now has a nice m e t a l plate good for landing spinning backfists on an opponent.

Why is that okay?
No abnormalities or questions asked regarding that.



^ Frank Shamrock's broken ulna bone which he now has a m e t a l plate along part of it's length.

Or guys with a m e t a l plate in the shin?

M e t a l plates sounds worse than a thin firm knucklepad covered in gauze encased within an 8 oz boxing glove.
Illegal and dirty, yes, but it's still basically just a thin hard strip across his knuckles within the hand-wraps.
Richardson said it looked like a normal knucklepad except it was hard.
What about a m e t a l plate within the hand itself? That's apparently okay. Could this not be construed as carrying a load? Is that a form of cheating?
Is it cheating if there's no rule against it even if it is basically a load?

Here's another one:



Even barring loaded handwraps, there are rules and regulations about how much tape and gauze are allowed on a fighter's hands.
Tape is also not allowed to be directly on the skin; must be gauze between the skin and the tape.
Tape is not allowed directly over the striking surface of the knuckles, only a layer of gauze.
Hopkins complained saying Trinidad's hands were illegally wrapped resulting in Trinidad having to rewrap, and Trinidad's punching power did appear to be compromised in that fight.

With details like this regarding tape and gauze, why is there no issue at all regarding a man with a steel plate(s?) and numerous screwnails embedded literally inside of his hand or inside his forearm or his shin or even his head like the story about Barrera?
If the Athletic commissions are so regimented with policies regarding lengths of tape and gauze and proper application of said, then why do they have no policy at all regarding m e t a llic implants in combat-sports?


This is getting like Lex Luger in pro-wrestling using the m e t a l implant in his forearm to knock guys out!

.