By Nate Anderson: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) is taking a calculated risk by agreeing to wait for Andre Berto 928-1, 22 KO’s) to heal up after he ruptured his left biceps during a sparring session to get ready to fight Ortiz for a bout that was originally scheduled to take place in February.

Instead of looking to go in another direction or to take a stay busy fight, Ortiz is calmly waiting for Berto’s arm to heal so that he can fight him on June 23rd in an HBO televised fight in a still to be determined venue in the U.S.

It’s a big risk for Ortiz because he hasn’t fought since last September in an embarrassing 4th round TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas. That’s the fight in which Ortiz dropped his guard completely by apologizing to Mayweather after headbutting him. Mayweather took the advantage of Ortiz apologizing by nailing him with a left-right combination that put him down.

The danger for Ortiz in waiting for Berto’s damaged left biceps to heal is that it could be re-injured as soon as he starts training again. Berto has already ruptured the same in 2010 and now he’s injured it again. Ortiz might end up regretting that he waited all this time if Berto injures the arm again while in training for the Ortiz fight. In the time that Ortiz has waited for Berto’s arm to heal, Ortiz could have easily fought twice and gotten two good paydays out of it.

Instead, Ortiz is waiting for the Berto fight with a lot of uncertainty about whether Berto will be able to make it out of training camp in one piece without suffering another injury. But more importantly, it’s a bad idea for Ortiz to wait on the Berto fight because it’s not like there’s a title on the line for the fight. If there was, Ortiz might have a decent chance of getting the title if Berto was to suffer another injury, but that’s not going to happen now.