A LESSON ON THE PROPER USE OF MOUTHGUARDS
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 07 Sep 2008
Canoga Park, CA.:- Tonight at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas a classic lesson on the use of proper mouthguards came to play.
Jorge Barrios (47-3-1, 34 KO), a former WBO Junior Lightweight Champion was leading on two of the judges? scorecards during his slugfest with Rocky Juarez (27-4, 19 KO) leading to round 11. That is in spite of the two points he lost for borderline low blows in rounds 3 and 9.
But he lost the fight.
All because of a big cut in his lip.
Barrios was leading since the early part of the fight and appeared to be on his way to a victory over the hometown boy, Rocky Juarez. From the looks of it, Juarez would not be able to mount a comeback. Barrios? lead lasted up to the end of round 10.
Apparently sensing that he was behind in points, Juarez began round 11 very aggressively. He started hitting Barrios with body shots and that opened up the opportunity to hit him in the head. Juarez continued the onslaught sensing that Barrios started fading due to the body shots. Then Juarez fired several times with hard shots to the face opening up a serious cut on the right side of Barrios? mouth. In addition, he also scored the lone knockdown of the fight in that round.
With blood pouring out of the mouth of Barrios from a nasty cut on his lip, the fight was stopped giving Juarez a TKO victory at 2:55 of the round.
Until the fateful moment, Barrios on the scorecards was leading by a score of 95- 93, 96-92 and 94-94.
Barrio's right upper lip (R) is cut badly as he battles Jaruez at Toyota Center in Houston, Tx Saturday night.
Watching the fight, what caught my attention more than once was how Barrios would slide out his mouthguard after each round before he even get to his corner. That tells me his mouthguard was loose and improperly made. Mouthguards are not supposed to be slipped out by the boxer?s tongue.
In all probability, the cut in Barrios? mouth happened in a very crucial moment when Juarez fired a hard shot in Barrios? face while his mouth guard was not seated properly (because it was loose). With that it became more like a chopping board instead of serving as a protection for his lips.
With due respect to Juarez who won the fight fair and square, the defeat of Barrios indeed served as a lesson in the use of proper mouthguards. Had his mouthguard been made properly, even with the knockdown, he could have recovered. In fact he did, but the cut in the corner of his mouth was so severe resulting in the stoppage of the fight.
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