(PHOTO CREDIT: Carlos Delgado – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotion) By Allan Fox: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) and former IBF/WBC welterweight title holder Andre Berto (28-1, 22 KO’s) face off in a rematch on June 23rd for the vacant WBC Silver welterweight title at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California, United States. Both Berto and Ortiz have a lot to prove after their last fight in April last year.

Berto lost that fight by a 12 round decision after getting knocked down a couple of times against the hard hitting but sometimes inconsistent Ortiz. Berto turned things around with a win in his last fight against Jan Zaveck to capture the International Boxing Federation 147 pound title. It was a good fight but Berto looked like he was running out of gas by the time the fight was halted in the 5th.

Ortiz defended his World Boxing Council title against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his first and only defense of his title last September and ended up having a mental breakdown when Ortiz head-butted Mawyeather in the 4th when things weren’t going to well for him. Mayweather chose to get back at Ortiz by nailing him with two hard shots when he was attempting to apologize for the fouls. The loss was an embarrassing one for Ortiz because he was never competitive kin the fight and rarely landed any of his big shots.

Berto’s left bicep injury is still a question mark for this fight. If Berto suffers some setbacks in rehabilitating the injury, then the fight could get pushed back beyond June. It was a risky idea for Ortiz to try and fight Berto given that he is coming off of a ruptured left bicep in training.

Both Berto and Ortiz will be coming into this fight licking their wounds from recent problems inside and outside of the ring. Berto has the left arm that may not hold up under action, whereas Ortiz may come into the fight with the mental baggage from the Mayweather defeat. I think Ortiz looks to be the more affected by these problems, because his mental breakdown against Mayweather last September may have hurt his confidence. In the press conference with Berto, Ortiz didn’t look like the same determined fighter he was going into the Berto first fight and the Mayweather bout. It looks Ortiz has been shaken by the incident. This isn’t the type of fight that Ortiz needed before his rematch with Berto, because he’s going to need a lot of confidence in order to win this fight.