By John F. McKenna (McJack): Newly crowned WBC welterweight champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO’s) is again at the center of a controversial firestorm after his KO win over Victor “Vicious” Ortiz (29-3, 2-2, 22 KO’s) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night.

Right from the beginning of the contest Mayweather demonstrated why the inexperienced Ortiz was not on his level and really did not belong in the same ring with him. Floyd dominated “Vicious” by using his superior speed, accuracy and intellect, landing 35% of his 208 punches, while Ortiz landed only 18% of his 148 punches. “Money” threw more punches and landed nearly twice the percentage of punches that Ortiz did.

Mayweather was able to land with many right hand leads, which is a sign of disrespect to a championship fighter as Victor was coming into the fight. Victor had no response to the ease with which Floyd was able to land his right hand leads.

Even more telling was Victor’s inability to hit Mayweater with one of the most important and basic of punches, the jab. Ortiz threw 31 jabs and landed none. Floyd as expected was in excellent condition and showed no effects from his sixteen months of inactivity

At the beginning of the 4th round Mayweather started turning up the heat throwing fifteen punches before Ortiz was able to return fire. It had become evident by then to those who thought Victor had a real chance at defeating Mayweather that he was in over his head.
You could almost feel the frustration starting to envelope Ortiz. Towards the end of the 4th round Victor bullied Mayweather into the ropes and then deliberately drove his head into Floyd’s forehead. Referee Joe Cortez immediately called time and deducted a point from Ortiz.

It was at that point that things started to get a little bizarre as Victor made a spectacle of apologizing to Mayweather. At one point during his apology Ortiz kissed Floyd on the cheek. Cortez, a long time and experienced referee called “time in”. Victor claims he never heard Cortez call time in. In any case “Money” hit Ortiz with a vicious left right combination while he stood there seemingly oblivious that he was involved in the most important fight of his life. Ortiz then crumpled to the floor where he was counted out.

Controversial endings are nothing new to boxing, but Victor Ortiz violated one of the cardinal rules, that being the referee’s final instructions to “Protect yourself at all times”.
Ortiz is not the first fighter, and probably won’t be the last to find out the hard way. The controversy of over last night’s ending is very similar to what happened to Jack Sharkey in his fight against former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey on July 21, 1927 at Yankee Stadium. Sharkey turned to complain to the referee that Dempsey had landed a low blow. Sharkey left himself unprotected and was promptly knocked out by a Dempsey left hook. The incident did nothing to diminish Dempsey’s huge popularity.

A professional fighter is trained to seize the opportunity and take advantage of every opening that he is presented with. After a period of time it becomes instinctive. Floyd Mayweather Jr is the consummate professional and violated no rules in his KO of Victor Ortiz.

Ortiz has only himself to blame for the outcome of his match with Mayweather. Put yourself in Floyd’s circumstances for a moment. First he is the recipient of an intentional head butt, followed by a kiss on the cheek after which his opponent decides to leave his hands down at his sides. What was Ortiz thinking?

Don’t blame Floyd Mayweather for the present controversy.