By William Mackay: IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) was in the right for sucker punching former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) twice while Ortiz was pulling back from a hug that he had just given Mayweather. Khan thinks it’s okay that Mayweather did that.
“What Mayweather did in there was fight,” Khan said to RingTV. “The ref did say ‘box on.’..His [Ortiz] hands should have gone straight up and he should have defended himself…Ortiz went in with his head. The reason he did that was because he was frustrated at not getting through the defenses of Mayweather.”
I completely disagree with Khan. It’s not okay to tag someone after they’ve hugged you and you hugged them back, as Mayweather Jr. did. I could understand it if Mayweather waved Ortiz away and let him know he wanted no part of a hug. But Mayweather hugged the guy and then while Ortiz letting go of Mayweather, he gets tagged twice.
That’s a cheap shot and it made Mayweather look awful, and it wasn’t just with the fans at the MGM Grand. It was also fans who saw it on HBO PPV. It’s hard to watch it and not be upset with what Mayweather did. Ortiz was clearly wrong for headbutting Mayweather, but it’s so much different when you throw a sneaky punch when someone doesn’t have their guard up and are pulling back.
Sure, Ortiz headbutted Mayweather but at least Mayweather had his guard up and was expecting incoming fire. It’s so much worse when you’re not expecting anything the way Ortiz. Those were sucker punches and it’s so, so sad that Khan is okay with Mayweather doing this. I just hope he doesn’t try to follow in Mayweather’s footsteps and decide to brain one of his opponents when he’s walking back to his corner with his back turned. Throwing sucker punches is dealing from the bottom of the deck. Headbutts and rabbit punches are bad, but throwing shots when guys aren’t expecting is much worse, I think.
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