By Jeff Aranow: It’s been ages since we’ve seen 147 pound fighters Andre Berto and Victor Berto battle each other in an exciting 12 round war back in 2011. The two fighters were among the best in the division at the time they fought. Now they’ll be doing it again tonight when Berto and Ortiz, both now no longer top names, will be fighting on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Berto vs. Ortiz has a start time of 8:00 p.m. ET. This fight isn’t the best fight on the card, however. There are some interesting undercard fights involving light heavyweight Edwin Rodriguez (28-1, 19 KOs) facing Thomas Williams Jr. (19-1, 13 KOs), and featherweight Fernando Montiel (54-5-2, 39 KOs) fighting Jorge Lara (27-0-2, 19 KOs).
There are also some off TV fights that will be interesting match-ups that the fans at home will not get a chance to see unfortunately.
Ortiz beat Berto by a 12 round decision in their fight in 2011. Berto feels that he wasn’t ready for the fight back then. We can only hope that Berto, 32, is ready and in shape for tonight’s contest because he’s certainly had enough time to train for the contest. If he’s not ready then that’s his fault. Berto knocked Ortiz down a couple of times in their 2011, and Ortiz did the same thing to him. However, the fight was decided in the last six rounds when Berto tired out and was dominated.
Ortiz and Berto both went on the lose to lesser fighters since then. Both of them also lost badly to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ortiz’s loss came in 2011, when he was stopped in the 4th round after he lowered his hands to apologize to Mayweather following a head-butt incident. Berto was soundly beaten by Mayweather last September in losing a 12 round decision. Berto arguably didn’t deserve the fight against Mayweather.
It looked like Mayweather gave him the fight because he wanted an easy fight and perhaps out of a good will gesture. It was a move that cost Mayweather in terms of PPV buys because the boxing public were absolutely not interested in seeing this fight. Some fans obviously were interesting, but they were in low numbers.
You can imagine that we’re going to see the same interest in tonight’s Berto-Ortiz fight. The main thing it has going for it is the fact that it’s televised on free television on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox. It the fight were televised on a premium network like HBO or Showtime, the ratings likely would be very low.
Things have changed a great deal for Berto and Ortiz since they last fought each other. At the time of their 2011 fight, both guys were seen as top talents in the welterweight division. There were only a small handful of better fighters than them in the 147lb division.
As of 2016, Ortiz isn’t ranked in the top 15 in the welterweight division, and Berto is ranked #3 with the WBC with what many fans see as a very generous ranking that makes little sense. Never the less, the winner of the Berto vs. Ortiz fight tonight will find himself ranked highly and in a good position for a payday world title fight. That doesn’t mean that either of them has a chance of winning a world title. It just means they’ll get a payday in facing one of the welterweight champions.
It’s impossible to see Ortiz and Berto beating any of the champions in the division or even in the 140lb division. Tonight’s fight is just going to put the Berto vs. Ortiz winner in position for a world title. The lower will need to be matched carefully to bring him back from the loss. The loser still won’t be finished from the sport, because it’ll take a lot more than a defeat to tonight to finish them.
It’s likely that the Berto-Ortiz loser will hang around the same way an aging Evander Holyfield hung around the sport well after he was no longer relevant and was still able to get important fights. The winner of the Berto vs. Ortiz fight will have a great chance to face WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia in 2016. It doesn’t look like Garcia’s manager Al Haymon is going to put him in any risky fights. Matching him against the winner of tonight’s fight between Berto and Ortiz will keep Garcia going for a little while longer as the WBC champion.
“I’m not leaving that ring without a victory,” said Ortiz via ESPN.com. Berto wants to hurt me just as bad as I want to hurt him. I’m ready to go again. This is going to be a fight of the year for sure. Two guys going back and forth. I want to rip his head off and he wants to rip my head off. It’s nothing personal. We can go get a burger after the fight.”
It’s doubtful that the Berto v. Ortiz II fight will be the ‘Fight of the Year’ for 2016. They’ve both lost too much from their games for this to be the ‘Fight of the Year.’ To be eligible for that type of honor, you have to be a relevant fighter, and not a couple of guys with deteriorating skills and/or an inflated ranking like we see with Berto. He’s ranked too high with the WBC for his current skill level.
The WBC gave Berto a high ranking after his win over Josesito Lopez last year in March 2015. Before that fight, Berto had lost two out of his last three fights. Beating Lopez shouldn’t have been a big enough win to make Berto a top five contender in the welterweight division, because Lopez wasn’t highly ranked at the time. Lopez was beaten by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Marcos Maidana in back to back fights in 2013.
After those defeats, Lopez won three consecutive fights against these fighters: Mike Arnaoutis, Aaron Martinez and Rafael Cobos. Beating Lopez should not have given Berto a top ranking because he clearly wasn’t a major player in the welterweight division at the time Berto fought him. On the contrary, Lopez’s career was sinking. Lopez hasn’t fought since his loss to Berto over a year ago.
“We’ve both had some nice wars so I’m ready once again, like I was the first time. And we’re there to put it all on the line on Saturday night,” Ortiz said. “Berto’s coming to kill me and I’m coming to kill Berto. That’s that.”