I have rarely seen a top fighter worry so much about a swollen eye (granted it may be a broken orbital) as Donaire last night. He literally stuck the glove to his eye and that was it. What would have happened if that punch had come earlier in the fight? What is gonna happen when he goes up in weight and gets punched harder, nasty cuts, broken nose, etc.?
Donaire said he covered that eye since he got double vision from that eye. He didn't cover it anymore when the vision from that eye went back to normal.
He covered it because it was giving him double vision... and he still threw the right hand off that eye. Seems like a smart adjustment to me.
Covering it with the glove to me is the more sensible action to get rid of the double vision. Closing your eyelids seems distracting and awkward thing to do (did you see a boxer fighting and voluntarily closing one eye?). Covering it with the glove is much easier and more comfortable thing to do.
When you cover it with your glove, you lose the use of that hand, plus you lose more vision than just closing the eye, because obviously the glove gets in the way of the good eye's sightline.
Bro. He still threw the right hand off the eye. Have you tried closing one eye in a fight and not thinking about your eye? It's not natural. Holding the glove there is already something you do for defense, with a small adjustment to fully block your vision.
The big bully in the lower weight division came up against a much smaller guy who made him look like an amateur and didn't back down in the championship rounds. Donaire cowered like a ***** in the 12th. There was Rigo right there in front of him for the entire 12th round and he did nothing but protect his eye. It didn't even look that bad post-fight. Believe me if Rios was seeing double, he would have thrown caution to the wind and went into berzerk mode. Self-proclaimed warrior, self-proclaimed great, self-proclaimed too good for Rigo. Whiny wuss got whooped.
I don't think so... Many boxers employ the peek-a-boo style... but I have yet to see a boxer fighting and voluntarily closing one eye...