Victor Ortiz’s big surprise

By Boxing News - 04/18/2011 - Comments

By John F. McKenna (McJack): When Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) squared off against Andre Berto (27-1, 21 KO’s) on Saturday night many people, including this author, had a lot of pre conceived notions about him. I must admit that I gave Ortiz very little chance to defeat Berto, who had been very impressive in his recent fights and was quickly shaping up as one of the future superstars in boxing.

Based off of Victor Ortiz’s recent fights, he just did not appear to be the fighter who was going to beat WBC Welterweight Champion Andre Berto. There were some who questioned Ortiz’s heart, based on his performance against Marcos Maidana, when he appeared to give up when the going got rough.

What happened last Saturday night confounded almost everyone. It was what makes trying to predict a fight so difficult, but also what makes it so much fun. It was very interesting watching the newly invigorated Victor Oriz. As the boxing commentators said over and over again, he was like a man on a mission and he refused to be defeated. Even when the referee took a point away from him for hitting in the back of the head, Ortiz fought all the harder to even up the round. All through boxing history boxers who were not supposed to win, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Going back to Jack Dempsey’s destruction of the towering Jess Willard and Jimmy Braddock’s win over Max Baer and Buster Douglas’s KO over Iron Mike Tyson, the potential for an upset and for someone to “shock the world” is always there. When Muhammad Ali challenged George Foreman for the Heavyweight Championship of the world, many people feared that Ali would be inured against the seemingly unbeatable Foreman. Big George had disposed of Ken Norton and Joe Frazier with ease. Foreman’s victory over Ali seemed certain. Even Ali’s own corner did not think he could win. He had to build up the hopes of his handlers, who he sensed had lost any hope of victory.

No one can ever sense what is in a fighter’s heart. Many times a fighter goes through a maturation process, where everyone has given up on him and he needs to pull things up a notch. What happened on Saturday night is good for boxing. If boxing pundits, writers and everyone who is supposedly in the know had all the answers boxing would become a very boring sport.

I expect boxing to go on for a very long time. Going back to the days of the gladiator’s people will always want to watch two fighters go against each other in combat. As a society we have not come as far as we would like to think we have. Boxing sometimes is referred to as the “sweet science”, but I suspect that the vast majority of fans want to see a knockout. The reason Jack Dempsey was so popular with boxing fans was because of his destroy of be destroyed slugging style. The reason that Mike Tyson remains to be an iconic figure in boxing is that his style of fighting was very similar to Jack Dempsey’s, who he idolized.

For whatever reason Victor Ortiz had the heart of lion in his fight against Andre Berto.

Even when he was floored, he came right back in the same round and knocked Berto down. You could almost read Berto’s mind as he appeared bewildered at what he was facing. Hopefully Berto will learn from his defeat and come back. He has loads of talent.



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