Ringside doctor reveals alarming truth behind Ricardo Blandon cut after DAZN criticism

Dr Neil Scott, the British doctor who advised that Ricardo Blandon could not continue against Rafael Espinoza, has revealed the severity of the cut that stopped the fight. The bout, for Espinoza’s WBO featherweight title and staged in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s victory over Christian Mbilli.

The decision to halt the action was criticized by Chris Mannix and Malik Scott, who were covering the fight for DAZN from a studio in London. They suggested that the contest should have been allowed to continue, at least until the end of the round, so that Blandon’s corner could work on the laceration. There were also questions about Dr Scott’s knowledge of boxing and a quip that it was hoped he wouldn’t be working on the main event.

Scott, the former chief medical officer of the British Boxing Board of Control and a surgeon who specializes in facial trauma, is one of the most trusted – and respected – doctors in the industry. Oleksandr Usyk, for example, remains grateful for Scott's handiwork after suffering a nasty cut against Anthony Joshua in 2021.

Unlike Mannix and Malik Scott, Dr Scott was inside the Riyadh arena at ringside, following a 26-hour journey from his home in Wales, barely centimeters from the wound in question.

“If we can, we will always give a corner a chance to work on the wound,” Scott told BoxingScene. “Unless the injury is unmanageable.”

Blandon, from Nicaragua, had accepted the fight only days earlier when Lorenzo Parra pulled out of an event blighted by threats of missile strikes in the surrounding city. Though he wasn’t taking a beating, Espinoza was clearly in control of the late substitute when he landed a slashing right hand with just under two minutes remaining in the third round.

Initially, and incorrectly, guided to the red corner by referee Janny Guzman, Blandon was eventually examined by Dr Scott in a neutral corner, where such examinations should take place.

Appearances can be deceptive when it comes to cuts

More concerning for Scott was the location of the wound. Sitting just below the eyebrow and creeping onto Blandon’s eyelid, it was also on top of his eye socket.

To the untrained eye, such injuries can be misleading. An awful, grisly wound – like the one Amanda Serrano suffered in her rematch with Katie Taylor – might prompt complaints that a fight should be stopped. Yet Serrano’s cut, though unsightly, was confined to her eyelid and did not pose the same risk of lasting damage.

The location of a wound, rather than how gruesome it appears, is often the crucial factor.

Conversely, when Blandon was treated with Vaseline after Saturday’s stoppage and the bleeding subsided, those who had questioned the decision were quick to declare that he should have been allowed to continue. But a globule of Vaseline being applied to a wound is a very different proposition from another full-blooded punch landing on it.

“I could see arteries and vein,” Scott continued. “All the brow muscle was torn down to bone and the supra orbital blood vessels were exposed.

“The white of his eye was covered in blood. He couldn’t see.

“One more punch and he would have had an arterial bleed.”

An arterial bleed, by the way, is described by Medical News Today as “a severe and life-threatening medical emergency where oxygen-rich, bright red blood spurts or pulses from a damaged artery in time with the heartbeat.”

Probably just as well that Dr Scott was there to recognize that.