By Hector Gonzalez: I was at the fight this weekend and had the privilege to watch the Victor Ortiz vs. Josesito Lopez live at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. What a showdown! Ortiz is receiving a lot of criticism for stopping the fight after getting a broken jaw during the 9th round.

In my opinion, Ortiz did the right thing by deciding not to continue. The most telling part about the fight is not that he ‘quit after his jaw broke’ and therefore he doesn’t have heart or is a quitter (that’s really just a matter of opinion), the most telling part is that Ortiz needs a better trainer.

First of all, Josesito Lopez is a great fighter. He would have given any fighter in the division a hard time, and he himself has the qualities to be a celebrated champion one day. Josesito was robbed of a decision against Jesse Vargas in a fight that Josesito truly won- so in reality Josesito has not had a true loss in 4 years. If Ortiz didn’t look that ‘good’, keep in mind that no fighter could reality look good against Josesito. Either way, if there was no broken jaw, Ortiz was slightly ahead on the score cards and Josesito’s eye was closing, so Ortiz most likely would have won the fight.

With that said, Ortiz has a quality about him that not many fighters have, superb physical strength. Ortiz has it in him to be able to break down fighters like Lopez and many others with ease, and the only reason why Lopez made it deep into the fight was because he’s a savy enough fighter to know how to properly clinch, locking both of Ortiz’s arms at the right time, neutralizing Ortiz’s weapons. Part of the reason why Lopez was successful is because Ortiz could only fight walking forward, sometimes smothering himself into his opponent. Ortiz needs to learn how to fight walking backwards, fighting from the center of the ring, and learn how to set up his combinations accurately.

Ortiz took a lot of unnecessary hits, in my perspective Ortiz was getting hit on purpose trying to set up Lopez for a counter and although Ortiz was successful at times, getting hit by Lopez and Ortiz countering with a shattering right hook that immediately rocks Lopez back to the ropes, Ortiz didn’t have to get hit that much in other to counter he could have made him miss.

With all due respect to Garcia who seems to be a stand up guy, If Ortiz was to work with a trainer who could teach him better boxing fundamentals, giving him more bounce, head movement, throwing combinations, Ortiz would be unstoppable- the champion he deserves to be.