Glove2Face

Victor Ortiz started his career back in 2005 and strung together a series of wins, other than when he was DQ’d against Corey Alarcon for an illegal punch, and became Golden Boy Productions rising star. He was virtually undefeated when he was scheduled to fight Marcos Maidana on June 27th 2009. The fight was electric from the beginning with both fighters being knocked down in the first round. Ortiz knocked Maidana down twice in the 2nd round and seemed to have control of the fight but Marcos never deterred from his plan and continued with his relentless assault. The next few rounds were as exciting as the first few with both fighters chopping away at each other. In the 6th round is when Marcos knocked Ortiz down again and this is when Ortiz decided enough was enough and wanted no more of Maidana even though he got back on his feet before being counted out. In the post fight interview Ortiz said “I’m young but, I don’t think I deserve to be…..getting beat up like this!”

Ortiz showed the world that he had no heart and that when the going got tough, in a fight that he was very much still alive in, he did the unthinkable…He quit!

Since that shameful night, Ortiz has done some damage control by beating some known fighters. He defeated Nate Campbell by decision, KO’d Vivian Harris in the 3rd round, and fought Lamont Peterson to a draw. He also went to war with Andre Berto in a fight of the year performance in a fight that many didn’t believe he was capable of sustaining. When Victor Ortiz got off the mat twice in this physical fight to win by decision, he almost deleted boxing fans memory of the Maidana fight.

His next fight was against the P4P king Floyd Mayweather Jr where he was simply too slow to land a substantial punch on the defensive mastermind, which eventually led to frustration. In round 4 Ortiz threw a head butt at Floyd trying to hit him by any means I guess. The referee took points and shortly after that Floyd took the fight. Ortiz apologized to Floyd for the foul, and then he apologized again, then when the referee motioned for them to fight he apologized again, but after this time Floyd let off a one two and knocked Ortiz down and Out. This was controversial, but that’s another story.

Ortiz showed signs in that fight that the frustration was still there and could be brought out of him if the going got tough, so the Berto fight either means something else was motivating him or Berto isn’t as good as we think.

Now fast forward to this past Saturday 06/23/2012. Victor Ortiz vs Josesito Lopez, and if Ortiz wins he already has a fight set up against undefeated Canelo Alvarez, which would give him a chance to fully redeem himself and propel his career into almost superstar status.

The fight was a hard fought one, which was expected, but most predicted that Ortiz would win. I seen how most people have forgotten, forgave, or given him the benefit of the doubt with his past heartless moment. After the 9th round Ortiz quit while sitting in his corner and said that his jaw was broken.

This seems like a legitimate reason to quit right? Not for other boxers… Not for someone that stood to gain so much from a win, and not for someone that wanted it bad enough. No matter how you look at it, the fact that he has a past of quitting, no one really wants to give him a break on this one. This is like crying wolf. If this was his first time quitting this wouldn’t be as big as it is. Didn’t Sugar Ray Leonard fight with a dislocated eye socket? And there were other fighters in history that fought with injuries but wanted the win so bad that they just adjusted and kept fighting. So there is no excuse for quitting at all, but boxing fans understand that fighters are human and would have eventually forgiven him like before, but twice? He’s pushing it!

He quit 3 years ago and we did not know if that was truly him or just a bad night. He showed reform in his next fights and really sold it in the Berto fight, but back slid in the Floyd fight. Ortiz is definitely a strong talented fighter, but he lacks the most important ingredient to being a great fighter in this sport. This is his second time quitting in 3 years, so in my opinion this is who Ortiz is unfortunately, he hid it for a little while, but like I said “ORTIZ IS BACK!”