By Chris Williams: I’m not trying to take anything away from Manny Pacquiao, but I think the September 17th fight between World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) and unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr (41-0, 25 KO’s) will be a fight between the two best fighters in the welterweight division bar none.
Like I said, I think Pacquiao is still good fighter in his own right but I don’t see Pacquiao in the same class as Ortiz and Mayweather. These are bigger fighters that know how to fight and would be trouble for Pacquiao if/when he was to ever fight one of them. Mayweather is another level with his boxing ability right now, and he’s going to need to age another five or six years for a guy like Pacquiao to beat him. And Ortiz is simply too powerful for the little 5’6″ Pacquiao to beat him.
Ortiz has got a lot of problems on his hands with Mayweather. Ortiz is going to have to try and find a way to land his shots without being picked apart with check left hooks and straight right hands. It’s all well good that Ortiz has a good chin, but he’s going to need to have a great chin on September 17th to come out with the win. He’s also going to need a good set of wheels in order to cut off the ring on Mayweather, because that’s what it’s going to take to may Floyd fight him.
Ortiz can’t depend on Mayweather positioning himself against the ropes the way that WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto foolishly did in Ortiz’s recent 12 round decision win last April. Mayweather isn’t stupid and doesn’t have stamina problems like Berto. What Ortiz needs is to be able to get close to work on the inside so that he mug Mayweather in a Marcos Maidana type of way.
It’s going to require a referee that doesn’t interrupt the action in close the way that Joe Cortez did when he continually separated Ricky Hatton and Mayweather when Hatton was trying to work on the inside in their fight in 2007. Ortiz really can’t beat Mayweather on the outside. He has to get in close on him and that’s not going to be easy to do.
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