(Photo Credit: Craig Bennett/Hogan Photos) By Jim Dower: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-5-2, 22 KOs) will be fighting on December 13th against 30-year-old journeyman Manuel Perez (22-10-1, 4 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Devon Alexander fight on Showtime from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 27-year-old Ortiz’s career could really use a shot of adrenalin right now, as he hasn’t fought since last January and he’s been knocked out three consecutive times. You can blame some of the losses on bad match-making, because Ortiz clearly needed to take it easy after his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr in September of 2011.
Instead of getting a confidence boost type of fight, Ortiz was put in against Josesito Lopez and then Luis Collazo in fights that Ortiz was stopped. Lopez was obviously a winnable fight for Ortiz, but unfortunately Ortiz suffered a broken jaw in the fight and had to quit on his stool after the 9th round.
It was still a very tough match-up for a fighter coming off of a 4th round knockout loss to Mayweather. The same goes for Ortiz’s fight against Collazo earlier this year. It was a tough match-up for a fighter coming off of a year and half layoff like Ortiz was.
“I want to be one of the greats. I want to be the pound-for-pound king, and I know what it takes to get there,” Ortiz said via ESPN.com. “At this point in time I have put two films aside just to fight, and I’ll be back in the ring to show you what I’ve been working on. I’m going to be world champion again.”
At this point in Ortiz’s career he should just focus right now on getting back to where he was when he was a promising contender. He should forget about his dreams of becoming a great, and instead focus on getting back to where he was before. It seems unlikely that Ortiz will ever be a boxing great.
Ortiz has too many holes in his game for him to become a great, but he can become a good contender and possibly win another world title in the future if he’s matched against the right guy. For now, Ortiz needs to work on his defense because he doesn’t have the chin for him to be fighting like he did before. He’s got to focus on learning how to box and avoiding getting hit.
The 5’7” Perez has lost 3 out of his last 7 fights, and he’s probably not going to be much of a threat to Ortiz. Perez fights in the light welterweight division, and he’ll be giving up a couple inches in height and three inches in reach to the 5’9” Ortiz in this fight.
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