WATCH: Naoya Inoue Sparks CONTROVERSY

Written by Jared Parry on 8th June 2022.

Naoya Inoue brutally dispatched surefire Hall of Famer Nonito Donaire in two rounds yesterday to become a three belt world champion at bantamweight. Their is no denying Inoue's power as he has a 87% knockout rate, however, the way his hands were wrapped yesterday have sparked a debate.

Inoue was seen to have tape on his skin prior to having bandages, with people believing that this is what is known as 'Stacking.' Stacking is where you form a cast, with layers of tapes and bandages, such as having tape, bandage, tape, bandage. This would cause the wraps to go hard when they get wet, therefore, when a boxers hands inevitably sweat in their gloves, the wraps will go hard. The same way Plaster of Paris works.

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Many in the boxing world have taken to Twitter to debate this. Tony Bellew believed that Inoue was in the right with what he was doing: "Don’t see no wrong here.. it’s one layer of tape on the skin and not on the knuckle! Then another layer of tape over the bandage to finish off! I’d be more worried about what’s in the middle of the gauze when watching hand wrapping! Inoue is clean as a whistle here. #Monster."

In contrast to Bellew, Liam Smith, who called out Kerman Lejarraga out in his dressing room prior to a bout with JJ Metcalf for stacking, doesn't believe Inoue's wraps comply with the rules: "The scary part about this is, it isn’t even getting questioned. Donaires representative just looks not interested. Surely that much tape on the skin isn’t allowed. Some states have none, some have 3 strips. Never heard of a full fist taped first."

Jamie Moore believes it wouldn't be allowed in the UK, but as their isn't any universal rules, it could be legal in that state: "No way this would be allowed in UK. Some states allow it I think. That’s the problem that you have when you haven’t got universal rules. Same with different governing bodies with different rules. Madness."

BT Sport's Dev Sahni seems to believe Inoue was stacking, and used the clip as a mechanism to promote the Boxing on BT this Saturday: "Inoue’s hands look a bit like the BT Sport show on Saturday night with Leach v Davies, Khademi v Ahmed and Dubois v Bryan… Absolutely STACKED."

Many Twitter users are also suggesting that Donaire requested these wraps. What are your thoughts? Is Inoue's handwraps within the law? Should Boxing have universal rules?