Victor Ortiz could be trained by Mayweather Sr.

By Boxing News - 09/26/2012 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-4-2, 22 KO’s) has reportedly approached Floyd Mayweather Sr. about having him take over training for him to help bring his career back, according to Examiner.com. Ortiz, still young at 25, has lost his last two fights to Josesito Lopez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. The addition of Mayweather Sr. as a trainer would be to help try and fix Ortiz’s leaky, some would say nonexistent, defense, which has caused him to take a lot of punishment in his recent fights.

Mayweather Sr. told examiner.com writer Chris Robinson “His manager told me that Oscar De la Hoya is the one that recommended me to Victor…That would be the best thing as far as defense and offense.”

That sounds promising because Ortiz badly needs help on defense, as we saw in his last performance against Lopez. Ortiz should have been able to win that fight without any problems because Lopez was weaker and lighter than him. However, Ortiz kept getting hit with left hooks and right hands from Lopez until finally Ortiz quit complaining that his jaw was broken. As it turns out, Ortiz’s jaw was indeed broken and in two places. He’s since had surgery and is still recovering from the June 23rd fight against Lopez.

It’s still unclear whether Ortiz will be training with Mayweather Sr. in Las Vegas, Nevada where Mayweather Sr. lives or if Mayweather Sr. will be coming to Ventura, California to train Ortiz where he lives. As Mayweather Sr. points out in the interview, it depends on the money situation. Ortiz is backed by Golden Boy Promotions and they deep pockets. They should be able to pay Mayweather Sr. what his asking price is to help their fighter, because it would be a valuable investment.

If Mayweather Sr., who is one of the best defensive trainers in the game, can fix Ortiz’s defensive flaws, he could return Ortiz back to championship level to where he won’t easily be dislodged by the top contenders. Offensively, Ortiz has got the tools to win more world titles, but he needs a lot of help. It’s not just with his defense that Ortiz needs help. He also needs a trainer that can get him not to get down on himself and give up when things start to go bad. We’ve seen some fights where Ortiz seemed to quit mentally when things weren’t going his way like in the Marcos Maidana and Mayweather Jr. fights. We also saw Ortiz back off against Lamont Peterson when he had him beat, and wilt under the pressure from Lopez.

I don’t believe that Mayweather Sr. will be able to teach Ortiz enough for him to have success against better fighters. He might be able to teach him some things, but likely enough to get past the real quality guys. What Mayweather Sr. can’t teach Ortiz is to keep his head together when things start going south on him. As long as Ortiz gets flustered when the tide of the battle swings in the other direction of his opponent, he’ll likely continue to lose in the big fights – or even the little ones like Josesito Lopez. We could be seeing Ortiz as a gatekeeper type fighter real soon.



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