Victor Ortiz Has Emerged As A Compelling Figure…WOODS

Published

14 years ago

August 31, 2011

Floyd Mayweather is the most compelling character in boxing today. But his foe for his September 17 bout, Victor Ortiz, has emerged as quite a fascinating character in his own right.

I’m spellbound as I process Ortiz while he talks about his life, his prospects for upsetting Mayweather, and his disdain for the media, which he says consistently veers negative, because they–we–sit around and feel sorry for ourselves.

On a Wednesday conference call to hype the Sept. 17 clash with the 41-0 Mayweather, the 29-2-2 Ortiz came off as a complex figure, as he exhibited flashes of rebellion, anger, serenity, and gratitude in a span of 50 minutes. In that way, he’s not unlike Mayweather, who will jump from a mood of boyish enthusiasm to braggy-rapper boasty in the span of a minute. Some might shake their head at the apparent inconsistency of it all, but I see the drama there; you don’t know what either man might say next, and that commands your attention.

I wrote a column (http://www.tss.ib.tv/news/articles/12869-an-apology-to-victor-ortizwoods) eight weeks ago in which I apologized to Ortiz for our tendency to harp on the negative. We do as a group go overboard in our critiques at times, and sometimes oversimplify things, or make erroneous deductions without possessing all or enough of the facts. In a column I posted yesterday (http://www.tss.ib.tv/news/articles-frontpage/13164-if-the-mayweathers-played-up-that-beef-for-the-cameras-give-em-an-oscarwoods), about the first installment of 24/7, I talked about how Ortiz is a winner, is someone to be celebrated merely for getting into the arena, after his mom and then his dad bolted, and left behind the Ortiz kids to fend for themselves. I hope I made clear that the fact that he didn’t succumb to self pity, to the lure of the streets, of easy methods of distraction and self-medication, as many of us do, is to be applauded.

I think Ortiz must’ve missed these items, because he seems intent on setting up a “me vs them” deal, pitting himself against the media, who he dismissed on the call as people who “don’t have a life.” Hey, a little turnabout is good medicine for us; we use that sword, sometimes we’re going to get sliced by it. But I will note here–on the call wasn’t the time or place to engage in that debate–that the media gets the word out on the sport, helps fans stay interested in the sweet science, and to smear us all as “get a lifers” doesn’t elevate Victor much at all.

Ortiz has so much to be proud of, he doesn’t need to stoop to throw a low blow at perceived nattering nabobs. “A guy like me wasn’t supposed to have beaten the odds like that, not according to the statistics,” he said. “That’s why I decided to make my own statistics.” Amen on that note.

Now, I can’t know–just as I can’t know what truly kicks around in Mayweather’s head, which is what makes him such an engrossing figure–how much Ortiz is using this “anti media” mindset to get himself fired up. But I suspect he is, and it’s not a bad tactic. He was indeed written off after his ‘no mas” against Marcos Maidana, and before his tussle with Andre Berto, so he has ample ammo to use to ignite himself to train that much harder to again shock the world, this time against the best boxer on the planet.

Some of that gratitude I mentioned before came through when he talked about getting together with his mother a few months back. She left him when he was seven, but they met a few months back, and Ortiz said the meeting went well. “She’s doing well,” he said. “I forgave her for everything. She asked me to forgive her. I decided I would before meeting her.”

Fair or not, because of his no mas moment, and his difficult upbringing, media will focus on Ortiz’ behavior, his mindset, check for signs of mental duress. He said on the call he was liking the hype for this fight, that it wasn’t distracting him. No, he said he hasn’t watched 24/7, but he is pals with the camera crew, and will watch the show after he upsets Mayweather.

Ortiz said he isn’t hoping that Floyd has gotten a bit long in the tooth, and isn’t crisp after a lengthy layoff. “I want the best Floyd Mayweather that is out there,” he said. He did take a poke at Mayweather’s talent, saying he never looked at Floyd as a great, like he did Oscar, Mosley, Hopkins and a prime Zab Judah.

He took a shot at the media for playing up difficulties he had making 140 pounds; he said this was not so. Writer Robert Morales, getting points for making his point without being contentious, pointed out that the media’s focus on that subject may have been as a result of Freddie Roach’s comments about how Ortiz stayed at 140 pounds too long. And then Ortiz switched gears, showing the quippy side of himself. When asked for a prediction, he said, “I’m not Muhammad Ali, come on now.”

As he did when he was in NYC for a press conference, Ortiz time and again used the phrase “I don’t know” or “I don’t really care.” You sense that he is working hard to make sense of it all, this fight, fame, family, love, minute by minute, and that answers aren’t easily deciphered.

Join the club, friend.

Ortiz’ promoter Oscar De la Hoya, fresh out of rehab for substance abuse, can likely identify. He’s knocking on the door of 40, and has had to re-calibrate his views on existence, after too many years of numbing himself with substances. On this call, Oscar said he looks up to Ortiz. “I didn’t live what Victor lived,” he said. “I can honestly say Victor is my hero.”

“I’ve learned how not to care about anything,” Ortiz said, in the context of analysts and critics opinions. Well, like it or not, Ortiz has made us keyboard tappers care. And even if he does like to think of us as get a lifers, some of us will still, I suspect, be rooting for this kid who should be a statistic, a jailbird, an OD victim, whatever, on September 17.

NOTE: I’m debuting a blog on ESPNNewYork.com next week. It’ll be mostly boxing, some MMA, focused on the NYC area. Fire me story ideas, pitches, things you’d like to see on there to FightBlogNYC@gmail.com.

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Michael Woods

Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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