On Mar 18, Los Angeles-based dentist Ed de la Vega posted a photo of a mouthguard — which is a protective device used by athletes participating in contact sports such as boxing or any other sport where his or her teeth are in danger of getting knocked out.
De La Vega has been known as the dentist who crafts boxer Manny Pacquiao’s mouthguards. Now, the mouthguard in the photo he posted had everyone talking because it bore the logo of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) political party.
Pacquiao, who is currently the congressman of Sarangani province, is running for senator under UNA in the May 9, 2016 elections. He’s also set to face US boxer Tim Bradley in their Apr 9 fight.
De la Vega had written these words to accompany the photo: “Guess who gets to use this on April 9th? #PacBradley3 @nickspeaks @abaccordero @ronnathanielsz @vegasbob1975 #boxing.” Naturally, people assumed that De la Vega was referring to Pacquiao and the mouthguard would be used in his fight against Bradley.
However, De La Vega later clarified in his Mar 19 Philboxing.com article that Pacquiao will NOT be wearing the UNA mouthguard. He explained: “Definitely, he will not be wearing the ‘play’ mouthguard we made a couple of days ago and whose photo we posted on the internet yesterday. That mouthguard had the logo of Pacquiao’s political party and its not allowed by the Philippine Commission of Elections to be used as it may ‘create an unfair political advertising for Pacquiao.’ Pacquiao as everybody knows is running a for a seat in the Philippine Senate.”
In another Twitter post, De la Vega shared the photo of the mouthguard that Pacquiao would actually be using in his fight against Bradley. (See below.) He also told everyone in another post: “MP’s mouthguards are no issue! Everyone, please chill!”
