TEAM SONSONA UPSET ABOUT THE ?FORGOTTEN MOUTHGUARD? STORY
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 08 Jun 2015
Many times, part of the perils of wanting to help those who do not know that they need help is create ?enemies? or at the very least folks that are upset because they do not understand the intent.
Yesterday, we wrote a story about Marvin Sonsona forgetting his mouthguard in Las Vegas prior to his fight at the StubHub in Carson, which he won via a majority decision. Needless to say, the hometown crowd that came to support their local boy loudly booed the decision of the judges.
But I digress.
Late this afternoon we received word that Sonsona was very upset with what we wrote.
Well, if we hurt his feelings we apologize.
But certainly, we still think that he should have been more responsible and he and his Team should have paid more attention to details.
Forgetting to bring the required equipment to a fight is inexcusable. Someone on the Team, particularly the boxer must be more responsible and assure that everything that is needed, from top to bottom - from the mouthguards to the jockstrap protector - should be checked and double checked and then packed for the trip.
We also totally understand the excitement leading to the fight particularly after a long layoff. But that is not an excuse to be careless.
Like we said before: Focus, focus, focus!
Forgetting to bring an important equipment is tantamount to going to war with a rifle without bullets. That is in no way to win a war!
Sonsona is particularly upset that I wrote about how creative he and his Team got by altering a mouthguard owned and used by another fighter so he will have one to use in the fight last Saturday.
I criticized the move knowing that it endangered him and deprived the other boxer from having a mouthguard for his own use.
Sonsona did not appreciate what I wrote. Apparently he and the Team wanted to keep the act from anyone out of his immediate team. They wanted to cover their tracks, and bite the bullet hoping that the altered mouthguard will not cause too many problems.
Luckily, Sonsona?s opponent was not a heavy hitter as evidenced by this low KO record of 3 KO?s in 16 fights. Otherwise, Sonsona would have been in deep trouble wearing an ill-fitted mouthguard. He got really lucky!
Unfortunately, Sonsona did not like us pointing out a grave mistake they made. We did so not with an intent to cause embarrassment rather to point out something that should not have been done as it was potentially dangerous. Further, we offered to mitigate future problems by offering him more equipment.
But Sonsona refused our offer to make him free mouthguards. He says that he has one made by his ?former manager? a dentist from the Philippines. We totally support and understand that.
But we also know whoever makes mouthguards, the mouthguards being made out of a specialized plastic, do wear off in time. That includes ones that we make.
We had no intention in asking him to discard his old mouthguards particularly that they were made by his former manager and therefore has special meaning for him.
We simply wanted to offer him a couple more so that as he moves up the ladder in the boxing world, he will have additional proper equipment he can rely on.
Sadly he did not understand that.
At any rate, we wish Marvin Sonsona all the luck in the world. Now that he belongs to the Haymon stable, we are sure that his future will be guided more than before. We hope to see him as a world champion yet again.
But we also want to see him go to all his fights properly equipped because we have seen too many injuries associated with poor mouthguards. We would not like him to be part of that statistics. I am sure his former manager being a dentist, will agree with us on this account.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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