By Hector Gonzalez: There are two things I want to start of by saying: 1.) Whatever critiques you may have about WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz at 140, (such as him losing to Marcos Maidana in the past) that’s no longer relevant, because Ortiz is fighting at 147 now. 2.) If you have an extra two hundred dollar’s laying around somewhere that you wouldn’t mind risking, you might want to think about betting it.

Ortiz has a bigger chance of beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. than people would like to give him credit for. Ortiz is no tune-up fight. A tune up fight is like when Juan Manuel Marquez fought Jimrex Jaca before fighting Marco Antonio Barrera, or Manny Pacquiao fighting Jorge Solis… Filler fights, not championship bouts, in this case Mayweather is after Ortiz’s WBC belt. No tune up fight here.

First off, people need to get over the Maidana loss. The boxing community already recognized that Ortiz should never have been fighting at 140 to begin with, keep in mind that when Ortiz fought Berto, Ortiz was actually the bigger guy walking in at 160 come fight night. He’s big guy, even reasonably bigger than most natural welter weights.. and yes, he will even be bigger and stronger than Mayweather come fight night. Also keep in mind that even though Ortiz virtually gave up against Maidana, he is also the guy that managed to knockdown Maidana three different times during the fight, including coming very close to ending the fight early, something that no other fighter has done… Now imagine that same fighter in his natural weight class, that’s the power that Ortiz has at 147.

Let me break down the Andre Berto vs. Ortiz fight so that people understand why Ortiz became an overnight super star and what makes him a worthy opponent against Mayweather. Ortiz was bound to be a star from the beginning, that was clear to me since the first time I saw him in the ring 4 years ago. Making him move to 147 should have been a gradual process, instead because of his loss to Maidana and draw to Lamont Peterson it was either, see what he can do at 147 now or he will pretty much be irrelevant. He goes up in the ring and delivers. Say what you want about Berto, but Berto was not only not suppose to lose the fight, he was not suppose to get knocked down three times and bullied for 12 rounds.

I’ve read from other bloggers commenting that Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Sergio Martinez or Amir Khan would have been more worthy opponents for Mayweather. I strongly disagree. Ortiz would blow Cotto or Margarito out of the water, we don’t know what Martinez could do at welter weight, and Khan lacks power and would probably lose if he fought a technical aggressive fighter such as Robert Guerrero from Gilroy California who will more than likely take over the junior welter weight division by 2012.

There are also a few variables that you have to keep in mind. First and most important is that Ortiz is a south paw. Mayweather tents to have a hard time against south paws, just like how he had a hard time against the south paw Zab Judah. Mind you, the main reason why Zab lost the fight is because he gassed out half way through the fight. Ortiz will be stronger than Zab, younger, and will not gas out. Ortiz will apply the same type of pressure that Hatton did, except that Ortiz actually has skills and KO power…

Mayweather is the favorite and rightfully so… But don’t be surprised if Ortiz knocks Mayweather out.