By Allan Fox: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) cannot afford to lose another fight at this point in his career, especially against fringe contender Josesito Lopez (29-4, 17 KO’s) on Saturday night for the vacant WBC Silver welterweight title at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California, United States.

This is a fighter that the 25-year-old Ortiz should and must be able to beat if he’s to stay among the top fighters in the welterweight division. There’s nothing remarkable about Lopez. He’s got decent power, he throws a lot of punches, but he’s basically a mediocre fighter that the top welterweights should be able to handle without any problems. Ortiz has got a lot of talent, but he’s also flawed in the chin department and in the mental part of the game. We’ve seen that when Ortiz is pressured hard, he crumbles mentally by making mistakes where self sabotages. Ortiz appeared to quit against Marcos Maidana in their 2009 fight. Last year, Ortiz went to pieces when things started going badly for him in his bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September. Ortiz ended up head-butting Mayweather Jr. and then dropping his guard after he was penalized for the head-butt. This allowed Mayweather to KO Ortiz with two hard shots to the head.

Golden Boy Promotions still is hoping that Ortiz can be a star for him, but a loss to Lopez will that near impossible. If Ortiz can’t even beat a fighter in Lopez’s class then Golden Boy is backing the wrong fighter and needs to cut their losses with him. Ortiz is still young, but if he mentally breaks down in this fight against Lopez, then you have to figure that Ortiz doesn’t have what it takes upstairs to be one of the best fighters in the welterweight division. It’ll be too bad because he has a fight scheduled against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez on September 15th and Golden Boy Promotions are looking forward to that fight. You can forget all bout that fight being made if Ortiz gets beaten by Lopez. Boxing fans won’t want to see that fight if Ortiz fails with Lopez.