DR. ED DE LA VEGA IS RIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 27 Feb 2010
While we may not have totally agreed with our good friend Dr. Ed De La Vega’s strong remarks against boxing managers after he checked on the teeth of promising young fighter Eden Sonsona and his decision to print the pictures he had taken of the terrible oral condition of Sonsona, we certainly agree with his observations about the importance of proper oral hygiene and the need for the Games and Amusements Board to take notice of this often neglected aspect of a fighter’s physical conditioning.
We can only surmise that the good doctor printed the pictures to jolt the GAB and boxing managers so they would take the proper action to protect the fighters, immediately.
When we first read Dr. De La Vega’s article it reminded us of what happened to Z “The Dream” Gorres when he lost his Philippine flyweight title to Edgar Rodrigo at the Makati Sports Complex by a shocking 9th round TKO after being dropped in the 6th, 8th and 9th rounds.
The esteemed sportsman-lawyer Rudy Salud, founding secretary general of the WBC who was managing Gorres career at that time in partnership with respected boxing patron Tony Aldeguer discovered in Gorres’ dressing room that he had a fever caused by problems with his teeth.
The very next day Salud took Gorres to a first rate dentist only to discover that Gorres had no less than seven abscessed teeth which had to be treated immediately.
We recall Rudy explaining to us that the poor oral condition of Gorres meant that the structure of his jaw was weakened and his ability to absorb punches considerably reduced.
The loss to Rodrigo was Gorres’ first setback and once everything was fixed the stylish southpaw was back in the ring and won 13 and drew one of his next 14 fights before losing a hugely controversial decision to WBO super flyweight champion Fernando Montiel in Cebu in February 2007.
Since the loss to Montiel, Gorres won five and was held to a draw by Vic Darchinyan in his last six fights before he suffered a tragic accident in his fight against Luis Melendez of Colombia which Gorres won handily but collapsed in his corner after the decision was announced and underwent brain surgery that ended his career while on the threshold of a world title rematch against Montiel.
Quite honestly, while Dr. Ed may sometimes get emotional – just like we do on issues relating to the protection of boxers – he is doing a service in drawing the attention of the GAB as well as managers and boxers of the importance of oral hygiene.
Our wish is that the alarm bells sounded by Dr. Ed are heeded by those concerned just as we would want them – managers, promoters and the GAB – to focus their attention on the issue of boxers being forced to reduce weight to fight in lower weight divisions and entering the ring dehydrated and weakened by days of virtual starvation in order to make the weight as was the case of Ciso “Kid Terrible” Morales who was knocked out in the first round by Montiel at the Las Vegas Hilton last February 13 after having to lose 12 pounds in six days to make the bantamweight limit.
For the record Morales’ five previous fights were at super bantamweight.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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