By Chris Williams: Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) possibly weeded out another potential opponent for Manny Pacquiao last Saturday night in beating WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (27-1, 21 KO’s) by an impressive 12 round unanimous decision victory. Now normally a loss like this would eliminate Berto from the running for a bout with Pacquiao, but that might be the case. We’ve already seen struggling fighters like Joshua Clottey get a fight with Pacquiao coming off a loss and guys like Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito get fights with Pacquiao with recent losses as well on their resumes.

A loss might just make Berto even more attractive as a potential opponent for Pacquiao. But I’m hoping Pacquiao will step it up and take on Ortiz next rather than waste time taking on another fighter coming off a loss. Ortiz looked like a possessed man last Saturday night in stalking Berto around the ring, punishing him with left hands to the head and hard body shots. Ortiz dropped Berto two times in the 1st round with one of the knockdowns not counting. He then dropped Berto one more time in the 6th with a hard left to the head. Berto just looked shocked.

Berto might have been expecting a timid Ortiz, the fighter that quit against Marcos Maidana in a 6th round loss in 2009 or the Ortiz that ran from Lamont Peterson after knocking him down twice. Ortiz showed Berto very early on that this wasn’t going to be the case, as he went right at Berto, walking through his best shots and landing devastating left hands to the head.

Ortiz seems a lot stronger at welterweight than he did when fighting at light welterweight where he had to squeeze down to 140. He’s simply too big for that weight. Never the less, Ortiz was very powerful at light welterweight, but at 147, he’s a much bigger puncher. He reportedly re-hydrated up to 161 for the Berto fight. That’s huge. If Pacquiao were to fight Ortiz, my guess is there would be some kind of re-hydration penalty build in to keep Ortiz from coming into the fight that heavy. By doing that, it would be like giving Pacquiao a nice handicap because Ortiz would have to come in even lower and be forced to take off muscle to keep from going over once he re-hydrated.