By Mark Havey: Golden Boy Promotion have confirmed Ortiz vs Alvarez for September 15th. WBC Light Middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (40-0-1 KO’s 29) has been looking forward to the step up in class, and he has reached that stage. Not everyone was impressed with his demolition of the recently retired Shane Mosley.
He hit Mosley with more shots than Pacquiao or Mayweather landed. But he also took more, so it’s a valid point. But he is still young so I was impressed with his performance. Alvarez has fought and beaten good fighters. But he has also spent too long on a level beneath his ability. So it’s nice to see him stepping up and I look forward to seeing where it leads.
Victor Ortiz (29-3-2 KO’s 22) is has had a very different career. He has been at the world class level for a longer period of time but has not always flourished. He also hasn’t had as many fights as Alvarez. This all leads me to think that he was moved along to the likes of Mayweather far too rapidly. But he has fought great fighters, and has some good wins on his record.
This is an interesting fight and I’m looking forward to it. I expect Alvarez to be a heavy favourite. He should be too big and too strong for Ortiz. Ortiz hasn’t been to active lately so it’s hard to say how the defeat to Mayweather has affected him. But I don’t think it would have done much harm as Mayweather is a great fighter and it was a cheap shot that beat him. True he was losing anyway and the shot was not illegal. But in the spirit of sportsmanship, he lost in round 4 because he expected Floyd to be fair. The saying ‘protect yourself at all times’ is said for a reason. Ortiz must of course beat Josesito Lopez on June 23rd, which I fully expect him to do.
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