Chavez vs Lee: Fighters Make Weight, Controversy Over Gloves

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Andy Lee both made weight today in El Paso ahead of tomorrow night's HBO main event, but there's some controversy over the gloves of Chavez, after a request to have them weighed by Lee's team.

Chavez (45-0-1, 31 KO) weighed in at 159 pounds, with Lee (28-1, 20 KO) at 159¼. Chavez looked leaner and tighter than usual, a bit more cut. Lee looked to be in his normal shape.

[ Chavez vs Lee Fight Preview ]

But there was some argument between the teams. Lee's handlers weighed their gloves to make sure they were 10 oz. gloves, but Chavez's team refused to return the favor. An official request was denied by Texas commission inspector Robert Tapia, who according to Team Lee said, "I'm the boss here. I say whether or not we inspect the gloves and we're not going to."

Lee's manager Perry Mandera said that he then went to Chavez's trainer, Freddie Roach, to make the request of them directly. "He pushed past me and said 'we don't have to, so we're not going to,'" said Mandera.

"They brought their own gloves and we brought ours," said Mandera, "so we thought in the interest of full disclosure and a level playing field, we would weigh both pairs. We weighed ours out in the open in front of everyone. They would not put theirs on the scale."

Mandera says the request was made in the interest of fairness.

"We just want everything fair. I don't know why they wouldn't drop the gloves on a scale to remove any doubt about a pair of gloves they brought themselves. Yes, it's a new pair, but you ever buy a pair of shoes that say size 10 and they're not? That's all we were trying to resolve. So why won't they weigh the gloves?"

Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage of Chavez vs Lee tomorrow night. The HBO broadcast goes up at 10 p.m. EDT, but the live fight from El Paso will be preceded by a replay of last weekend's controversial Pacquiao vs Bradley fight from HBO PPV.