By Babatis Banda: Victor Ortiz was brutally knocked out on the 17th of September by the super star, Floyd Mayweather Junior in the fourth round of their scheduled 12 round bout. From very early on, it was clear, Victor was headed for a lopsided loss, or indeed, a knock-out at some stage of the fight.
The burly youngster was dominated early-on and was being barked off and Floyd was almost about to tee-off, when Ortiz launched himself into a missile, using his head to cut the lower lip of Floyd both inside and outside.
It was during one of those few moments Ortiz backed Floyd into the corner, hustling and firing from all cylinders. He got frustrated when he could not land any significant punch to worry Floyd. Floyd was right there in his face, moving his head and using his arms to parry away the ineffective flurry of blows when suddenly, Ortiz ejected himself and launched his body high, landing his head on Floyd’s face. You could have easily mistaken the whole episode for a NASA propulsion project, and surprisingly this was not the first time Victor had tried to use his head in the fight.
As embarrassing and as unprofessional the act was, Ortiz came to his senses by apologizing and hugging and kissing Floyd repeatedly to the point that, I began to feel Ortiz was soliciting for Floyd’s mercy, as if to say, please don’t embarrass me any further. I have known Floyd as a very emotional individual, and I expected him to react immediately but yet he kept his cool. Being a fighter he is, I suspect Floyd was really burning inside to punish this boy.
Cortez, the referee clearly commanded the two fighters to engage, both by word of mouth and by gesturing with his hand after deducting a point from Ortiz. This is clearly audible and visible for anybody with second thoughts, and at this moment it was game on. Floyd tagged Ortiz with a ‘cheeky’ short left ‘check-hook’ another of those ‘patented’ Mayweather arsenals. Even after being tagged, Ortiz turned to the referee, as if to say, ‘save me please’ without bothering to cover-up. I don’t know what was going on in Ortiz’s mind, but clearly he had given up the fight at this stage of the fight.
Mayweather smelling blood, instinctively sent-in a hard straight right punch, well leveraged from the shoulder. The result was a brutal shake of Ortiz’s chin, as if it was of rubber. Up to now, it beats me how Ortiz is able to speak without difficulty.
With the above said, it is baffling to hear some quarters cry foul. To my knowledge, Ortiz did not protest and neither is his camp in protest.
It is clear Floyd did nothing wrong, and the issue of morality is neither here nor there in a sport in which two men are trying too hard to inflict the most pain and damage to each other. Victor himself was willing to go an extra mile, to maim Floyd with a head-butt and though illegal and quite embarrassing, it has never become the point of discussion for all Floyd haters.
I will understand if the criticism is coming from hard-core Manny supporters, who in most cases, logic has escaped and who relish anything negative about Floyd, than the hard-core coherent boxing fans. This is a done issue and the experts have clearly said nothing wrong was done by Floyd. Ortiz himself admitted that this was a learning curve, I am sure next time he will protect himself at all times. Let it go.
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