Mayweather Did To Ortiz What Many Other Greats Would’ve Done…LOTIERZO

Published

14 years ago

September 27, 2011

MayweatherOrtiz_Hogan16 It’s been a little over a week since WBC welterweight title-holder Floyd Mayweather 42-0 (26) stopped former title-holder Victor Ortiz 29-3-2 (22) at the end of the fourth round. And from the moment Mayweather dropped and stopped Ortiz with a perfectly placed left-hook and right cross to the chin, there’s been much written about Joe Cortez’s ineptness as a referee and Mayweather’s unsportsmanlike behavior during the bout.

Let’s get Cortez out of the way first – yes, he clearly was out of position and did a horrible job governing the fight at the end. But that had no effect on the result, that blame goes to Victor Ortiz. Did Victor really think he could try to headbutt Mayweather and then try to make friends with him and perhaps suck him into falling for his own bending of the rules conduct later in the fight? As we saw Ortiz learned the hard way because Mayweather was too experienced and smart to be bettered by Ortiz at that game.

It’s been agonizing hearing and reading the cookbook analyst banter back and forth saying what Mayweather should’ve done or what they would’ve done in that situation. As most know this column has not treaded lightly when it comes to objective criticism and critique of Floyd Mayweather the fighter. But I can’t, nor should anyone else yell fire when there isn’t a whiff of smoke in the air just so they can jump on Mayweather because they don’t like him.

During the past week it’s been written a thousand times how the first thing fighters are taught when they go into the gym is “protect yourself at all time.” Yeah, in a perfect world that sounds great, but it’s not true, simply because a fighter coming into the gym for the first time is so far away from fighting that it’s not even a thought. That aside, it is repeated by the referee before all fights in the dressing room and at ring center before the start of the bout. Actually, it’s the last thing a fighter hears before the bout. However, that doesn’t matter for this discussion because the focal point is more centered around whether or not Mayweather did anything wrong or illegal – to which the answer is, no!

Some have referred to the left-hook and right hand that Mayweather stopped Ortiz with as a sucker punch. But only if you allow yourself to get suckered. More importantly it was also legal and many past all-time greats would’ve done exactly the same thing Floyd did in that spot. The object in fighting is to win, and that means by whatever it takes to do so within the rules. If a fighter gets a free shot at his opponent and the opponent is too distracted to protect himself from being so vulnerable, you better believe nine out of ten times he’s getting clocked. In a fight there are many unknowns and if a shrewd fighter like Mayweather can end it before he gets cut or head-butted a second time, you better believe he’s going to take his shot and go home with the win. Once Ortiz touched Mayweather’s gloves after Cortez deducted a point from him for his attempted head-butt, it was on and shame on Ortiz for being a dope. Could you see Mayweather being caught like that if the situation were reversed? Not in a million years would Mayweather leave himself at the mercy of his opponent.

Professional fighting isn’t war, but it’s also not about making friends or giving an opponent a break once the bell rings. If fighter A could hit fighter B low three times a round and not be disqualified or penalized, you better believe he would, with his thought being it’ll take something out of his opponent and give him an edge later in the fight. Some of those reading this are probably huge fans of Sugar Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Bernard Hopkins, Michael Spinks, Jack Dempsey, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. So I ask, how many fighters did they ever give a break to? And could you really see them not doing the same thing Mayweather did in the same situation? I can’t. Every fighter mentioned did whatever they could to incapacitate their opponent as fast as they could within the rules so they could get out of the ring uninjured and with the “W”. They just weren’t as lucky as Mayweather was in as far as having an opponent in front of them in a big fight who left themself so wide open to get whacked so cleanly the way Victor Ortiz did.

When world class fighters get in the ring, so much is riding on the outcome and it’s so dangerous and hard to win at that level, it’s takes a rare breed of man who won’t seize on every opening his opponent gives him. Knowing the way Floyd Mayweather approaches boxing and with so much riding on the outcome when he fights, how could he not nail Ortiz with two clean finishing punches after Ortiz tried to head-butt him? Once Victor tried to butt him during the fight, Floyd became a little fearful because that never happened to him before. It made him view Ortiz in a completely different way and he then realized that Victor was going to do whatever it took in order to give him his first defeat.

Personally, I believe even if Ortiz hadn’t tried to butt Mayweather, Floyd still would’ve cut loose with the left-hook right hand combo that he knocked him out with in that spot. However, once Victor escalated his presence during the fight, if there was a chance that Mayweather was going to let him off the hook, that was gone. And that’s because Floyd Mayweather is a real fighter and doesn’t have any dog in him. When he’s in the ring he’s all about winning, and if you scare him or try to intimidate him, he won’t try and make friends with you, instead he’ll try to legally cut your throat, something that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed his career.

At the end of the day, Mayweather scored an impressive knockout and lives on to fight another day for millions of dollars, regardless of who the opponent is. Sure, there’s plenty to rip Mayweather the fighter about. Obviously he’s picked his spots and hasn’t met the best available opposition when they were there to fight him and at or near their prime. His insistence on making Manny Pacquiao submit to Olympic style drug testing before they fight is just a ruse and a means to gain an edge in the ring on fight night. Floyd’s been an even greater manager in some aspects than he is a fighter. So there’s plenty that Floyd Mayweather the fighter/boxer can be called on, but his conduct during his bout with Victor Ortiz last week shouldn’t be on the list. He won the fight fair and within the rules and in a manner that many past idols and greats would’ve.

Many of the beloved greats from the past weren’t altar boys in the ring when they fought and neither is Floyd Mayweather. The fact that he was brazen enough to take the free shots that Ortiz gave him showed me a little something more about his character as a fighter. Remember, there was some risk in doing that. What if Ortiz didn’t blink and turned to him after the right hand crashed against his jaw and said, “now what Floyd”? However, that thought never crossed Mayweather’s mind because he was intent on getting Ortiz out of there and would’ve just hit him again.

Professional fighters don’t win by being nice guys and making friends with their opponents in the ring. Unfortunately for Victor Ortiz, he thought by buddying up to Mayweather he could con Floyd into not embarrassing him later on during the fight. And to Mayweather’s credit, he saw right through that subterfuge and put him away the first chance he got, legally and justifiably. Just as Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and countless other all-time greats would’ve done.

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

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Frank Lotierzo

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

2 days 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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