The mouthpiece and boxing: An oral history

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nuraknu

savage
Jul 20, 2016
6,247
10,770


Long before fighters wore gloves as standard fare, boxers used makeshift protection ranging from a quartered orange to cotton to protect their teeth and lips. In the early-1890s, an English dentist named Woolf Krause fashioned a crude shield made from strips of gutta-percha (a rubbery sap) that was placed in a fighter's mouth and held in place by the fighter clenching his teeth.

In 1902, Jack Marles, another London dentist, improved upon Krause's creation by using a more durable rubber to create a reusable gumshield for boxers to wear during training sessions.

That brings the narrative to Ted "Kid" Lewis, arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter to come out of England. Lewis was snaggle-toothed. When he fought, the edges of his teeth frequently cut his lips. Some sources say that Lewis wore a mouthpiece in combat for the first time in 1913. Others place the day of reckoning on Aug. 31, 1915, when he dethroned world welterweight champion Jack Britton in Boston....

The mouthpiece and boxing: An oral history | Sporting News
 

nuraknu

savage
Jul 20, 2016
6,247
10,770
I am in the middle. I'm really enjoying the parts about taking it out to breathe. This is good stuff.