HOLLYWOOD—There has been much fuss about Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s dollar bill-lined mouthguard. A dentist who has been crafting Manny Pacquiao’s mouthpiece for about a decade thinks it is much ado about nothing.
“Mayweather’s mouthguard… is nothing but something to use for a show,” said Dr. Ed Dela Vega, the dentist who has been making mouth guards for Pacquiao since he was a scrawny featherweight going up against Mexican legend Erik Morales for the first time.
“The function of a mouthguard is to protect the athlete, not to show off that you have a lot of money,” he added.
Dela Vega explained there may be structural integrities in Mayweather’s mouthpiece, especially with $100 dollar bills reportedly inserted into them.
“I was looking at the pictures of the mouthguard and the more inserts they put in the mouthguard of Mayweather, the less function it will have, other than for show,” said Dela Vega.
“The mouthguards are laminated with several layers, there are three layers of lamination. If you put an insert that’s not made of plastic, what will happen is the lamination won’t work. The layers may separate and that will cause more problems,” he added.
Mayweather’s mouthguard. Photo from TMZ Sports.
Mayweather commissioned a dentist to make 20 mouthguards and reportedly paid $25,000 for them. How much does Pacquiao’s mouthguard cost? Dela Vega says it is worth $500, and he’s not even billing the Sarangani congressman.
“I never charge Manny for his mouthguards because it is my little way of showing respect for what he has done for the country,” said De La Vega. “The honor he brings to the country, I think that deserves respect.”
“I get tickets,” he said, then adding with a laugh: “But not this time.”
Tickets for the Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown on May 2 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas could end up costing more than Mayweather’s mouthguards.
For this fight, Dela Vega designed Pacquiao’s mouthguard with a mix of colors from the Philippine flag. He wanted to separate the colors at first, but decided to mix them to represent the kind of support Pacquiao gets when he steps on the ring.
Manny Pacquiao and Dr. Ed Dela Vega talking about Pacquiao’s new mouthguard. Photo courtesy Ed de la Vega.
“It hows the mixture of people who are supporting him; that’s what I wanted to project,” said Dela Vega, who said the mouthguard provides protection where Pacquiao needs it most.
“I already know where to protect him because I’ve seen his teeth several times,” he said.
And Pacquiao seems happy with the result.
“When he first used it, he only described it in two words: Approved, perfect. That’s all he said to me,” said the dentist.