{"id":882703,"date":"2026-09-04T06:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882703\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:08:17","slug":"las-vegas-artist-makes-custom-mouthguards-for-boxings-biggest-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/882703\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas artist makes custom mouthguards for boxing’s biggest names"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) \u2014 They are small enough that you may never notice them. But some of the biggest names in combat sports have stepped into the ring with a piece of Las Vegas art between their teeth.<\/p>\n

Behind those custom mouthguards is a 24-year-old who never exactly planned on making them.<\/p>\n

“My dad is a dentist, so he kind of got me into this whole scene… I had a boss before this, and he’s the one that actually started the company, but he passed away from COVID… I took some knowledge from him and some knowledge from my dad and created my own thing,” Julian Santiago said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | See Julian Santiago’s process firsthand with Taylor Rocha<\/p>\n

Las Vegas artist makes custom mouthguards for boxing’s biggest names<\/p>\n

Santiago is a Vegas native who found his hometown was also the perfect place to build a business like this.<\/p>\n

“If I didn’t live here, I probably wouldn’t be able to do this because there’s so many fighters coming in and out,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

How a mouthguard is made<\/p>\n

Every guard starts with an impression of the fighter’s teeth. From there, Santiago pours a stone model, using vibration to work the material into every detail. Once it hardens, the design process begins \u2014 cut, layered, and pressed into place using a vinyl cutter and a heat press machine.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/p>\n

KTNV<\/p>\n

It is a process Santiago has been perfecting for years. But it took one fighter to put his work in front of millions.<\/p>\n

The post that changed everything<\/p>\n

When Gervonta “Tank” Davis fought Ryan Garcia, Santiago posted a video of the mouthguard he had made for Davis. The response was immediate.<\/p>\n

“I made him one… and then the day he fought Ryan Garcia, I posted it. I fell asleep, woke back up, and it had like 10 million views,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/p>\n

KTNV<\/p>\n

The video took off. So did the DMs. Soon, the client list started looking more like a pay-per-view card.<\/p>\n

“Jake Paul found me… Mike Tyson, his manager found me on Instagram,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

A perfectionist’s approach<\/p>\n

The famous names may get your attention, but watching Santiago work makes it easy to see what keeps them coming back.<\/p>\n

“There was one where I’ve literally had to start over five times because… there would just be the smallest air bubble… it would bug me too bad. I would have to just restart and restart until it’s good,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/p>\n

KTNV<\/p>\n

A perfectionist with an artist’s eye, Santiago is also a massive fight fan \u2014 which makes seeing his work in the ring that much more meaningful.<\/p>\n

“When I see them using it, it’s crazy. My whole family gets around, everybody’s taking pictures of the TV. It’s a fun time,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

At 24, Santiago has already checked off most of his dream clients. But one big name remains on the list.<\/p>\n

“Conor McGregor would have to be my biggest one,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

His ambitions are also growing beyond combat sports.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/p>\n

KTNV<\/p>\n

“I wanna go to UNLV and I wanna make their whole team mouthguards. I wanna go to the Raiders. I wanna do that too. That’s my biggest goal right now,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (KTNV) \u2014 They are small enough that you may never notice them. But some of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[45655,45656,703,49,48,101640,219294,82,219295,865,93600,219296],"class_list":["post-882703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-13-action-news","tag-abc-13","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-las-vegas-sports","tag-las-vegas-sports-teams","tag-sports","tag-sports-in-vegas","tag-sports-news","tag-sports-stories","tag-vegas-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}