By Jason Kim: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) is at least $25 million richer today and possibly $40 million richer after clobbering WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) with two shots that dropped him for the ten count in the 4th round last Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The two punch combination was thrown by Mayweather with referee Joe Cortez looking off into space and there’s a question whether the action had even been restarted after Cortez had taken a point away from Ortiz for a missile like headbutt in the 4th round.
It was a dirty move by Ortiz, as he appeared to jump forward with his head spearing Mayweather to the face when he backed against the ropes. It was a good call by Cortez to stop the fight, and take a point away from Ortiz. However, things fell apart when Cortez didn’t seem to be focusing on the two fighters and there was a question whether the action had even been resumed.
Cortez was looking into the audience for what seemed like forever at the same time Ortiz was apologizing for the second time to Mayweather for the headbutt. Mayweather then wastes no time by hitting Ortiz was a tremendous left hook as he was backing up and not ready to fight. Cortez is still looking into the audience at this time and missed the first punch by Mayweather, and only appeared to see the tailend of the second shot.
After the fight, Cortez said “Time was in. The fighter needed to keep his guard up. Mayweather did nothing illegal.”
Maybe so, but if that was the case then Cortez really needed to have his eyes on the two fighters and not looking into the crowd. It seemed like he was distracted and not engaged. That may have given Ortiz a feeling that the action hadn’t resumed.
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