By Brian Webber: David Avanesyan’s team is reportedly filing a formal complaint to the Nebraska Athletic Commission about WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford being allowed to continue fighting in the sixth round when both of his gloves split during the fight last Saturday night on December 10th at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. BLK Prime pay-per-view showed the fight on their platform.
The padding of the gloves was seen coming out of the glove during the round, and surprisingly, Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs) wasn’t made to change the gloves. Ultimately Crawford knocked Avanesyan (29-4-1, 17 KOs) out cold in the sixth round after landing two hard shots.
During the round, Crawford’s gloves, which were coming apart, were checked out by a Commission member. Despite the gloves being cracked, the fight was allowed to continue, which will be second-guessed.
It’s unclear if there was less padding over the knuckle part of Crawford’s gloves after they split. In hindsight, it would have been wise for the referee to change the gloves during the round to avoid any issues.
If Avanesyan’s eyes had been hurt due to the stuffing poking out, that would be a terrible situation.
Depending on how things go with the investigation, there’s a possibility that the results of the fight could be overturned with it being ruled a no-contest.
McGuigan comments on Crawford’s glove splitting
“Metallic leather always breaks up. To be honest, it’s hard to say they [Crawford’s gloves] only had six rounds in them and a warm-up,” said trainer Shane McGuigan to iD Boxing in reaction to being told that David Avanesyan’s team is asking for the Nebraska Commission to investigate the gloves Terence Crawford wore for their fight last Saturday night in Omaha, both of which split during the contest.
The is a lot going on with regards the gloves in the back ground I, @DavidAvaBoxer and the team thankyou for all your input and support and will be a release in due course when all our ducks 🦆 are in a row 🥊 pic.twitter.com/ovkk5nkM6V
— Neil 🇬🇧 (@neilmarsh3) December 14, 2022
“I mean, it’s really hard to say that. They’re beaten-up gloves. If there’s a chance of leather ripping, they’re ripping on that because it’s kind of like pleather, a plasticky-like, fake leather.
“Most of the time, if you get Everlast gloves with metallic leather, they do crack, but the thumb will come through, and they’ll break up before the actual main part goes, basically.
“But he [Crawford] had that metallic leather on the main portion of the glove, and he had the green leather on the inside, which didn’t break, and then he had his thumb gone. So maybe the commission should look at that or whatever has made at Everlast, for instance. We’re not going to make gloves that way.
“It can happen, but in my thirteen years coaching, it’s only happened once. So, it is quite rare,” said McGuigan.