By Jason Kim: Light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz (24-2-1, 19 KO’s) got a painful lesson in his last fight when he was stopped in the 6th round by knockout artist Marcos Maidana on June 27th at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles. Ortiz, 22, made the mistake of trying to slug with a slugger and ended up getting taken out in the 6th round by the powerful Maidana.
The knockout was worsened by Ortiz’s comments after the fight in which he seemed to be hinting about retirement from boxing. In the following days, Ortiz was quick to point out that he was indeed going to continue fighting. However, as of yet, there is no word about when or if Ortiz will be fighting again.
Although Oscar De La Hoya from Golden Boy Promotions, who Ortiz is promoted by, said that Ortiz would have won the fight had he used his boxing skills and stayed on the outside, I’m not so sure about that. Maidana appeared to have Ortiz’s number and was lightning quick at cutting off the ring against Ortiz on the occasions that Ortiz would try to move and box. It was like Maidana was saying to Ortiz, ‘Oh, no you don’t. You’re not going anywhere.’
Naturally, Maidana probably won’t be getting a second chance at fighting at fighting Ortiz, because Golden Boy Promotions will likely keep Ortiz as far away as possible from Maidana to prevent their fighter from being knocked out a second time by him.
However, if Ortiz ever wants to erase the cloud that surrounds him from this loss, then he’s going to have to step up and fight Maidana again whether he likes it or not, because right now, people picture Ortiz getting beaten up by Maidana when they think about Ortiz. He can get some fights in against some lesser competition but if he wants to win back fans, Ortiz is probably going to have to risk fate by fighting Maidana to try and seek revenge.
Hopefully, Golden Boy doesn’t start force feeding Ortiz lower level fighters so that he can win back his confidence. I don’t think that’ll work, because I doubt he’ll be fooled. He’ll know that he’s being served up fighters just to make him feel good, and I doubt it will fix his problems from his fight against Maidana.
A better thing for Golden Boy to do is to continue to put Ortiz in with dangerous fighters so that he can learn to box and move better. Before the fight against Maidana, Ortiz had fought strictly light hitting fighters without power. Then he was more or less thrown in the deep end with one of the biggest punchers in the light welterweight division with Maidana.
I would try to get someone good, maybe lightweight Breidis Prescott, or former light welterweight champion Ricardo Torres. I’d put Ortiz in a sink or swim scenario. If his heart and head is in the game, he’ll emerge victorious.
If not, then its better finding it sooner rather than later so that Golden Boy can cut their losses and dump him. If they string it along and having him fight weak punchers from here to eternity, I’m afraid they may end up sadly disappointed when Ortiz is knocked out again when he’s finally put in with a big puncher.
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