By Allan Fox: There’s talk of former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-4-2, 22 KO’s) facing 32-year-old former two-time title challenger Alfonso Gomez (23-6-2, 12 KO’s) in September on the same card as the heavyweight match-up between Chris Arreola and Seth Mitchell, according to Steve Kim.
The date Golden Boy Promotions is looking at is September 6th or 14th.
Matching Ortiz-Gomez with Arreola-Mitchell makes a lot of sense because an Arreola vs. Mitchell fight card would likely not attract a lot of attention unless it’s paired with a good undercard name like Ortiz. I can’t say the Ortiz vs. Gomez fight is a good one, not now at least. It might have been a good fight 2 or 3 years ago when Gomez was fighting a little better.
Gomez has lost his last two fights against Shawn Porter and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and he hasn’t fought since last year in July. Ortiz hasn’t fought since June, but it’s different with him because he’s got speed and power. He can still fight well if he can get his mind back into the game and learn to fight in a more intelligent manner.
Ortiz was beaten by Josesito Lopez by a 9th round stoppage last year in June in an upset loss. Ortiz suffered a broken jaw, and had not that not happened he was on his way to winning the fight by a 12 round decision. He quit on his stool after the 9th. He did the right thing by quitting because it was pointless to continue fighting with his jaw broken badly in two places.
Ortiz has now had a year to recover from the jaw injury and he’s ready to get back in the ring. Gomez is a safe pick for him because he’s got decent but not great power, and he’s someone that Ortiz can out-box if he needs to if things start going badly for him. They shouldn’t, because he’s a much better fighter than Gomez, but there’s always that possibility.
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