Berto destroys Ortiz in 4th round KO

By Boxing News - 04/30/2016 - Comments

berto84By Chris Williams: We may have seen the end of former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz’s pro career tonight with him getting knocked down and stopped in the 4th round by former IBF/WBC 147lb champion Andre Berto (31-4, 24 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Berto did little until the 4th round at which time he knocked Ortiz down twice with big right hands. Ortiz failed to say he wanted to continue after the second knockdown when asked by referee Jack Reiss if he wanted to continue. The fight was official halted at 1:14 of the 4th. Ortiz barely beat the count in getting up from the 2nd knockdown. Reiss then gave Ortiz a chance to continue by asking him “Do you want to continue fighting”? At that point, Ortiz just looked at him blankly and then looked away rater than telling him that he wanted to continue fighting. You can’t say that Ortiz quit, but it kind of looked that way because he didn’t answer Reiss.

Ortiz knocked Berto down with a hard left hand to the head in the 2nd round. Ortiz came out boxing instead of slugging but still was able to out-box Berto, who looked gun-shy at first. Ortiz was fighting in a much different style than he’d ever shown in the past by jabbing and throwing single left hands. It was almost like watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. with the way he was throwing only single pot shots at the end of his career. It worked well for Ortiz through the first three rounds until he got caught with a big right hand from Berto in the 4th.

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Ortiz was hurt from the first knockdown in the 4th round. Berto caught Ortiz with a perfect right hand that exploded on the head of Ortiz, knocking him down on his backside on the canvas. After Ortiz got up, Berto rushed him and threw a small flurry of shots that mostly missed. Ortiz was able to land a nice left hand to the head of Berto during this exchange. However, moments later, Berto caught Ortiz against the ropes and nailed him with a hard left-right to the head that put Ortiz down for the second time in the round. This time, Ortiz was badly hurt and had to crawl his way back to his feet. Ortiz barely beat the count in getting up at the count of 9 and looking shaken and unstable on his feet. At that point, referee Jack Reiss asked Ortiz if h wanted to continue and he failed to respond. That left Reiss no other choice but to stop the fight. Ortiz looked like a deer trapped in the headlights of a career. Ortiz appeared in shock from the second knockdown and appeared not to want any part of fighting anymore.

The way the fight ended will cause many of Ortiz’s detractors to say he quit like he had in the past in his fights against Marcos Maidana, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Josesito Lopez. It’s hard to find an argument against that because Ortiz sure looked like he quit tonight against Berto. Ortiz didn’t say the words ‘I quit,’ but his failure to respond to the referee Reiss’ questions when he asked if he wanted to continue sure made it seem like he quit.

Ortiz’s punch resistance was bad as it’s been in the past. We saw Ortiz get knocked around the ring by Josesito Lopez, Luis Collazo and Marcos Maidana in the past. Even against Lamont Peterson, Ortiz struggled when he took the fight to him. Ortiz is good front runner, but he gets some resistance, he falls apart mentally and physically.

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Ortiz was cut on the forehead in the 1st round from a clash of heads.

“I never saw the punch coming,” Ortiz said about the first knockdown of the 4th round. “I haven’t had a perfect career but I guarantee everyone loved my fight,” said Ortiz afterwards to a load chorus of boos from the fans.

With this win, Berto is now poised to fight for a world title against WBC 147lb champion Danny Garcia. Berto is ranked #3 by the WBC and it had been talked about that if he won tonight’s fight against Ortiz, he would be fighting Garcia next. Berto wants the fight.

WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia said this about a potential fight against Berto: “Let’s make it happen!”