Berto vs. Ortiz: Two flawed fighters go at it this Saturday night

By Boxing News - 04/11/2011 - Comments

By Chris Williams: On Saturday night we’re going to see two talented but flawed fighters in WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) and Victor Ortiz (28-2-2, 22 KO’s) face off in a battle at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Both Berto and Ortiz are HBO fighters and neither of them have been looking good when facing quality opposition. Ortiz has been beaten by Marcos Maidana and recently struggled to a disappointing 10 round draw with Lamont Peterson in his last fight last December. And with Berto you have dig deep to find the last time he actually fought anyone that was really quality. Berto has been brought along very, very slowly, and HBO hasn’t minded all the less than spectacular opponents that Berto has been facing the past couple of years.

The last real fight that Berto had was two years ago when he got what many people felt was a gift 12 round decision over Luis Collazo. I’m one of those people who saw Collazo winning that fight. Oddly enough, Berto didn’t any of the controversy bother him. He simply ignored and didn’t give Collazo a rematch.

Berto instead moved on to easier fights against light welterweight Juan Urango, a struggling Carlos Quintana and fringe contender Freddy Hernandez. To say that Berto is a underachiever is being kind. He’s definitely taken the easy road to success and HBO hasn’t had any problems airing all of Berto’s mismatches.

This fight against Ortiz is a step up fight for Berto, yet here he is facing another light welterweight instead of someone from his own division like Mike Jones.
Berto will have the hand speed advantage over Ortiz, but not by much. Ortiz has got really fast hands as well, and even better, he’s a southpaw. In the power department, it’s a toss-up.

Both fighters punch with about the same power. Ortiz has a better uppercut and short left hook. He can be deadly with these weapons when he’s using them and fighting with confidence. However, Ortiz’ confidence in himself seems to be his major problem. He didn’t look good when he was pressed hard by Maidana and Peterson. In both instances, Ortiz seemed to crumble a bit. He ended up getting stopped by Maidana after knocking him down multiple times.

In the Peterson fight, Ortiz had the fight won after dropping Peterson twice early in the fight in the 3rd round. But then Ortiz went on the retreat mode when Peterson started fighting for his life. Ortiz spent the rest of the fight circling the ring like he was afraid to engage against the smaller and lighter-punching Peterson.



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