By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (30-5-2, 23 KOs) says he doesn’t even see the September 12th match-up between WBA/WBC 147lb champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) and former IBF/WBC welterweight champ Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) as an actual fight. Ortiz says he sees it as an embarrassing fight, and that he thinks both guys should retire from the sport. However, Ortiz, 28, says he would still like a rematch with Mayweather so that he can try and avenge his 4th round knockout defeat that he suffered against him in their fight in September 2011.
“You know what? It’s embarrassing, bro,” Ortiz said to TMZ.com about the Mayweather vs. Berto fight on September 12th. “That’s not even a fight. If anything, they both need to retire, or at least Floyd needs to give me some kind of chance to redeem myself. I have no respect for that. I have no respect for a fight like that.”
Ortiz beat Berto by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2011 to capture the WBC welterweight title. It was a back and forth fight until the second half of the bout. Ortiz then took over the fight after Berto gassed out badly. Berto wound up spending the second half of the fight resting against the ropes, and unable to fight Ortiz in the center of the ring like he’d done in the first six rounds.
Since Ortiz’s loss to Mayweather in 2011, he’s fought only three times in the past four years, losing two out of his threes in losses to Josesito Lopez and Luis Collazo. The only fighter that Ortiz has beaten in the last four years is light welterweight journeyman Manuel Perez last year in December 2014. Ortiz hasn’t fought at all in 2015, and it’s starting to look like he’ll not fight this year. While Ortiz is still young at only 28, he’s missed so much time in the last four years that it’s very likely he’ll never be the fighter that he once was ever again.
Further, it’s difficult to imagine that Ortiz will start fighting on a regular basis in the future. He seems to have other things going on outside of the ring that have his attention. Ortiz was in a Hollywood movie, and he’s done modeling in the past.
Getting a rematch against Mayweather isn’t realistic for Ortiz. His 2 defeats in his last 3 fights make it impossible for him to get a rematch against Mayweather. Ortiz isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at this time due to his inactivity. Instead of asking for a rematch against Mayweather, Ortiz needs to start fighting three to four times a year so that he can work his way into position to fight for a world title against one of the world champions.
It’s too late for Ortiz to work himself into position to snatch one of Mayweather’s two welterweight titles once he vacates them either this year or next year, but at least Ortiz could work his way into position to fight for a world title in time if he gets active with his career. Ortiz has obviously made a lot of money in boxing, but he’d have made so much more if he’d fought more often in the last four years.
Some boxing fans feel that Ortiz lost his ambition to fight after he got a big payday against Mayweather. It’s hard to know what the real reason is for Ortiz’s lack of fights since the last four years. He’s certainly had injury problems. He suffered a broken jaw in the Lopez fight that took a long time to recover from. Ortiz also recently suffered a hand problem that has kept him out of action since his win over Perez. It’s unclear at this point if his hand has healed or if he’s still recovering from the injury. Given that Ortiz doesn’t have a fight scheduled, you would have to assume that his hand is still healing.
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