Lauzon effectively feels that Sotiropoulos is flouting a loophole in the rules prohibiting grappling pants; Sotiropoulos says he's doing nothing wrong and that many others have used the same equipment before him.
Lauzon's concern is that Sotiropoulos' fight gear provides extra grip to aid in submission tries.
"I've asked the commission what my choices are, if I can even stop him from wearing it or not," said Lauzon. "In the past, all the commissions I've dealt with, it's always been OK for them to wear something as long as the opponent agreed. If they agreed, it's all fair. People say I'm calling him a cheater? I'm not. It's a thing where he was given a choice, he decided to wear it and the opponent could have stopped him. If the opponent didn't want to stop him, that's fine. But if I choose to stop him, I will if I can."
"It's well within the rules what I'm doing," Sotiropoulos later said. "Lots of fighters have done it. Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Frank Mir, Tim Sylvia, just to name a few. It's well within the rules what I'm doing. It gives both fighters some kind of an advantage. It gives him grip and it gives me more grip. That's part of the reality of wearing any sort of fabric on your body. Does it give me any advantage over my opponent? No, it gives us equal advantage. It gives us both a level playing field and that's really the bottom line."
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