By Eric Thomas: WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) has already come up with a strategy to try and beat undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 Ko’s) in their fight on September 17th at a still to be determined venue. Ortiz, 24, says he’s going to take the fight to Mayweather and try to turn it into a war. This no doubt has been attempted before, albeit with weaker and smaller fighters than Ortiz. Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton both attempted to take the fight to Mayweather and were easily beaten.
The southpaw Ortiz is bigger and stronger than those guys, so perhaps he can take Mayweather’s hard pot shots and keep firing back to get inside on Mayweather.
In an interview at the The Ring, Ortiz said “I’ll take him the same way I thought Oscar De La Hoya beat him, the way Jose Luis Castillo beat him, that’s take the war to his ass.”
This would be more or less the same tactic that Ortiz used on beating former WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto by a 12 round decision in his last fight in April. Ortiz went right at Berto and forced him to fight a long and protracted inside ward where Ortiz was eventually able to beat Berto, but not before being knocked down twice. To Ortiz’s credit, he was able to get up off the deck on two occasions and put Berto down twice as well, and eventually wear him down.
hasn’t had to fight really hard for a very long time, which gives Ortiz a chance if he can take Mayweather’s pinpoint shots. Mayweather is a lot more accurate thin Berto and is generally very hard to hit. He’s good at countering and making his opponents pay for their mistakes by nailing them with short left hooks and straight right hands. Ortiz will have to show a better chin than he did in his loss to Marcos Maidana and his win over Berto in order to beat Mayweather.
A win for Ortiz over Mayweather will be like hitting the lottery, as Ortiz would then be in the running for a huge money fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, as well a rematch with Mayweather. Ortiz, in theory, could fight end up fighting Mayweather twice and Pacquiao at least once. Talk about your rags to riches story.
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