By Jason Kim: 24-year-old southpaw Victor Ortiz (28-2-2, 22 KO’s) has some of the best physical tools in the light welterweight division as well as the welterweight division. However, despite being blessed with great physical gifts, Ortiz has been beaten twice and recently had to settle for a 10 round draw against someone he was totally dominating in the earlier part of the fight.

On April 16th, Ortiz will be taking a tough fight against unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-0, 21 KO’s) at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut. This is a fight that Ortiz has a great chance to win if he toughs it out and is willing to deal with some adversity. Ortiz appeared to mentally quit on himself in his fight with Marcos Maidana in 2009 after knocking him down multiple times.

Ortiz was great when he was throwing, but when he was met with some adversity in the 5th and 6th rounds, Ortiz seemed to crumble mentally and give up. The same applies for his fight against Lamont Peterson in December last year. Ortiz had the fight in the bag when he was slugging, but as soon as he was met with some resistance from Peterson, Ortiz started running around and basically ruined his chances of getting a win.

In his fight with Berto next week, Ortiz is going to be facing someone that is going to be fighting tooth and nail to win from the very start of the fight. Ortiz will then have to decide whether he’s got the heart to fight through the heat or whether he’ll just fold and give up. We could see an exciting fight or another Maidana type bout where Ortiz just falls to pieces once he starts getting hit.