By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) was supposed to have fought Andre Berto (28-1, 22 KO’s) last month on February 11th. However, the fight couldn’t take place due to Berto rupturing his left biceps, which was the same injury he suffered last year. Instead of moving on and taking another fight while waiting for Berto’s arm to heal, Ortiz agreed to wait and face Berto on June 30th in the summer.

Although it might sound good due to the money that would be made in the fight from HBO, who interested in televising the bout, it’s not good for Ortiz if Berto’s left arms fails to respond quickly to therapy or if he re-injures it in some fashion while training. Just with all the time off for Ortiz to sit and do nothing while Berto’s arm slowly heals, it’s a dumb move.

Ortiz loses a fight that he could have squeezed in between, and the month goes with it. He also could end up with a big zero if Berto’s arm fails to heal quickly. For a risky thing like a ruptured bicep, it just isn’t smart to wait for a fight like that. I could understand it if this was the last fight of Ortiz’s career and it didn’t matter if it consumed almost a year in finally having the fight take place.

However, Ortiz is in his prime and waiting around for a guy that may or not be available in June just doesn’t seem like the smart move. I can see Berto hurting his arm in some manner and then the fight is put off again to somewhere like August or September or even later. So Ortiz ends up losing pretty much a year of his career waiting around for a fighter with a serious injury that may or may not heal on schedule. If I were Ortiz’s manager, I’d have said no to that and would have put him in gear to fight someone else. I would let Berto heal on his own and then prove that he can make it through training camp to fight another guy, but I wouldn’t want my fighter to the one having to wait on Berto making it to the fight without getting hurt again.