(Photo: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: If you’ve seen photos and video of Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) in the past week you’ll notice how painfully thin he’s looking in getting ready for his important bout against Josesito Lopez (29-4, 17 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Ortiz looks badly weight-drained and you have to wonder how heavy he was before he started training camp.

Ortiz needs to get down to 147 lbs in order to make weight for their fight for the WBC Silver welterweight strap. It probably won’t matter if Ortiz misses the weight, because after all it’s only the Silver strap that will be on the line for the fight. However, as drained as Ortiz is looking the Silver title is the least of his worries. He can’t afford to lose to a fighter like Lopez because of having taken off too much weight. Ortiz has to win this fight to stay among the top fighters at welterweight and in the sport in general. Ortiz has already been beaten by Marcos Maidana and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Getting beaten by those guys gives Ortiz a pass, because they’re well known fighters. However, if Ortiz gets beaten by Lopez, then it’s going to really hurt Ortiz’s career in a big way.

Ortiz doesn’t look good in pictures. That’s a fighter that has taken off too much weight. Time will tell if he’s able to rehydrate after tomorrow’s weigh-in without being weakened in the process. I know WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has no problems draining from 180 to 160 to make weight for his fights, but he’s one of the rare fighters that can take off that kind of massive weight and not be weakened in doing so.

Ortiz is going to have problems as it is with Lopez’s fast pace fighting style. Lopez likes to throw a lot of punches and he never stops coming forward. If Ortiz isn’t at full strength from being weight drained, I can see Lopez pulling off a big upset and beating Ortiz on Saturday.