By Jason Kim: WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) isn’t impressed with the fighting style of unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s), who the young 24-year-old Ortiz will be fighting on September 17th. Ortiz is likely going to be a heavy underdog in this fight because he’s facing someone with much more experience as well as technical ability.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Ortiz said “Mayweather’s quick, he’s a great fighter, but I’ve never been that impressed with his style.”
Ortiz is likely pointing to Mayweather’s pot shot style of fighting, which usually results in him picking his opponents apart from the outside with fast laser like shots. Unlike Ortiz, Mayweather doesn’t have huge power nor does he throw a lot of punches. Mayweather also doesn’t like to get hit and tends to move a lot with his upper body to keep from getting tagged. He’s the opposite of Ortiz with his fighting style. It’s a style that is effective for Mayweather now because of his quick hands and his youth. However, it’s a style that may not work once Mayweather starts to lose his hand speed and reflexes, because he won’t have the power and the work rate to fall back on once his speed is gone.
Ortiz may be an underdog in this fight but with his speed, power, work rate, southpaw stance and youth, he’s going to be a lot bigger problem for Mayweather than any other opponent that Mayweather has fought in many years. The last opponent that gave Mayweather problems was Oscar De La Hoya back in 2007. However, Ortiz is a much bigger problem for Mayweather than De La Hoya, because of Ortiz’s speed, power and work rate. De La Hoya could punch but didn’t have the power that Ortiz has, and by the time that De La Hoya fought Mayweather, De La Hoya was already at the very end of his career and not the same fighter he once was.
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