De La Hoya: Ortiz was just warming up against Mayweather when he was hit with a cheap shot

By Boxing News - 09/25/2011 - Comments

Image: De La Hoya: Ortiz was just warming up against Mayweather when he was hit with a cheap shotBy Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya thinks that his fighter former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz was just warming up in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. De Hoya says Ortiz’s momentum was cut short by the cheap shot that Mayweather landed in the 4th round when referee Joe Cortez was looking outside of the ring instead of at the two fighters.

De La Hoya said this on his twitter: “Watched the Ortiz fight again, and I have to say Ortiz was coming on. It was only the 4th round and Ortiz was letting his hands go. He [Ortiz] was just warming up putting Mayweather on the ropes, then the cheap shot came [from Mayweather] along and the ref [Joe Cortez] was looking at someone ringside. Ortiz wanted to make it a street fight, not an unfair fight. I’m not trying to sell, I’m just saying that at 24-years-young, Victor was going to come on strong. 4 rounds, you are just warming up.”

De La Hoya feels that the fight was still up in the air at the time that Mayweather tagged Ortiz with a two-punch combination while the referee Cortez was distracted and looking at the ringside timekeeper. To be sure, Ortiz was coming on in the 4th round and looked powerful at the time he headbutted Mayweather in the excitement of the moment. Had the headbutt not stopped the action, it might have ended much differently. I’m not sure if Ortiz would have won or not, but he was clearly coming on at that point in the fight and looked to be having his best round.

The referee seemed to cause confusion by saying “Let’s go” when the two fighters were far apart on the opposite sides of the ring inside of bringing them together in a more traditional way and telling them to resume action up close. But what seemed to confuse Ortiz even more was when the referee turned away from the action and stared at the timekeeper for a prolonged period of time instead of what was happening in front of him in the ring.



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