NEVER again.
Jonas Sultan learned his lesson the hard way as he vowed never to tape his feet again during a fight.
The Filipino boxer admitted taping his feet and ankles restricted his movement in his 10-round fight against Carlos Caraballo on Sunday (Manila time) at the Madison Square Garden.
It was the first time Sultan did the thing and said it obviously didn’t do him any good.
But he did enough to beat the heavily favored Puerto Rican fighter by unanimous decision in a back-and-forth fight highlighted by five knockdowns, four of them courtesy of Sultan.
“Yung dalawang paa ko binalot ko. Nakikita ko kasi sa mga (basketball) players yun,” said the 29-year-old Zamboangueno with a laugh in his hotel room shortly after the bout.
“Yun ang ininda ko. Fifth round pa lang namanhid na yung paa ko.”

Preventing injury is the main reason for athletes taping their feet and ankle especially in sports that carry a high risk of injury due to contact.
Sultan (18-5, 11 KOs) however, found it not to his liking.
“Kapag sinubukan kong umatras, hindi ko kaya. Mabigat talaga yung paa ko,” he said. “Hindi ako maka in-and-out kasi di ko na siya (paa) magalaw.”
It was to his advantage that he imposed his will earlier against the power punching Caraballo, previously unbeaten in 14 fights, knocking him down two times in the first three rounds of their fight.
Sultan said he could have put more pressure on the Puerto Rican following those two knockdowns in the hope of finishing the fight soon enough, but couldn’t move his feet as quickly because of those wraps.
“Tatapusin ko na sana, kaso delikado kapag gumalaw ako,” he added.
It resulted in the fight dragging for the entire 10 rounds and Sultan keeping Caraballo from a distance by scoring two more knockdowns in round six and nine, respectively.
The last knockdown on a nasty left hook and a glancing right uppercut, appeared to have given Sultan the leeway to score a unanimous decision on identical scores of 94-93 in all the judges’ cards.
“Buti na lang talaga na knockdown ko yung kalaban ng apat na beses,” said Sultan, whose corner was worked by Joven Jimenez, trainer of IBF super-flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas.

Sultan also suffered a knockdown when a left by Caraballo near the end of the third appeared to put him off balance. While he didn’t go down, the referee said the Filipino’s glove touched the canvas, prompting a count.
“Hindi ako bumagsak. Talagang binilangan lang ako ng ref,” said Sultan of referee Johnny Callas.
To be fair to Caraballo, who won all his previous 14 fights by knockouts, he did have punching power, according to Sultan.
“Malakas din. Magaling din talaga,” he said.
On this night however, Sultan’s power rocks.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph