By Jason Kim: Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda – Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) should consider himself very lucky tonight that he wasn’t disqualified for tagging WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) with what appeared to be a cheap shot left hook-right hand combination a fraction of a second after Ortiz apologized to Mayweather for head butting him in the 4th round.
I don’t know how this fight doesn’t get over-turned because Mayweather should have been disqualified in my view.
This was like Mayweather cheap shotting Ortiz in return, but not getting penalized like Ortiz did. I know Mayweather is popular and is considered boxing’s cash cow but you got to be fair about it. Mayweather should have either been disqualifed or had points taken away. Cortez really blew it by missing the action and not making the call. I think it was another bad night for Cortez I hate to say.
Referee Joe Cortez appeared not to even be watching the action at the time that Mayweather tagged Ortiz, knocking him to the canvas. Cortez had just taken a point away from Ortiz for getting a little over eager while opening up on Mayweather with a flurry of power shots while he was backed up against the ropes.
Ortiz clearly was in the wrong for the head butt, and deserved to have the point taken away. Ortiz seemed to lose his senses completely while blasting away at Mayweather. He didn’t need to head butt, because he was doing reasonably well, although he was getting hit with a lot of pot shots in the 3rd and 4th round. Cortez honestly should have been all over Ortiz in the 1st round when he first started showing signs of using his head while in close. Had Cortez stepped in earlier and given Ortiz a stern warning, he may have sparred himself the point deduction. But that’s not excuse for what Mayweather did when Ortiz was apologizing to him. He didn’t deserve to be tagged in the head with a two punch combination while his arms still outstretched in apology mode.
The first round was pretty close with both guys trading and Ortiz stalking Mayweather around the ring.
In the 2nd round, Mayweather began landing more of his pot shots, but Ortiz seemed to be the stronger fighter with his hard combinations and his constant pressure. Mayweather looked uncomfortable.
Things changed in the 3rd, as Mayweather was now loosened up and began to tee off on Ortiz with straight right hands down the pipe, tagging Ortiz as he was coming forward again and again. It was total domination for Mayweather in that round. Ortiz had his moments, but Mayweather was pretty much in full control of that round.
In the 4th, Mayweather started off well continuing to pot shot and flurry on Ortiz. As the round was nearing the end, Ortiz opened up with some powerful combinations after trapping Mayweather against the ropes. Ortiz was really laying into Mayweather with some really big shots. However, just when things were going really well, Ortiz went spastic by leaping forward like a little billy goat and tagging Mayweather hard in the head. Referee Joe Cortez immediately stopped the action and took a point away from Ortiz.
You could see that Ortiz felt really bad about what he had done, as he walked over and apologized to Mayweather, giving him a little hug. While Cortez was still not looking at the two fighters, Ortiz walked over to apologize again to Mayweather, sticking his arms out to say he was sorry. But just when Ortiz was starting to back up after saying he was sorry, Mayweather tagged him with a cheap shot left hook followed immediately by a right that knocked Ortiz down flat on his back. Referee Cortez, who hadn’t been following the action, turned around and quickly stopped the fight giving Mayweather a knockout victory. It was sickening. Cortez turns his head, misses Mayweather’s cheap shot and stops the fight after Ortiz is knocked down.
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