By Allen Fox: Former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 23 KO’s) has some of the best skills in the welterweight division but his skills are negated with some of the mental mistakes he makes in the ring, such as in his last fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. when Ortiz dropped his guard to apologize to Mayweather for headbutting him and was knocked out.

Ortiz will face Andre Berto (28-1, 22 KO’s) next month on February 11th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The last time these two fighters met up last year there were huge fireworks with both fighters doing down twice in the first six rounds. Berto had little left in the tank after the 6th, and Ortiz was able to cruise the rest of the way with his better conditioning and superior inside game.

Berto has been working hard on building up his stamina for this fight so that he doesn’t lose juice at the end again. Berto may not need it if he can get Ortiz out of there in the first five rounds. Berto’s conditioning has always been shaky when he’s fought someone that’s forced him to fight harder than his body is accustomed to. It’s not so much the rounds with Berto, but rather how hard he’s being pressured in the fight. Berto is a lot like former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal in that he fights well when he can fight at a slow pace where he’s dictating the action. But when you force Pascal to fight hard for more than four or five rounds, he gasses out.

This is where Berto has to worry because he’s probably not going to be any better than he was in the conditioning area, even though he’s got a nutritionist working with his diet. Berto looked tired in his last fight against Jan Zaveck by the 4th round and who knows what would have happened had it gone into the second half of the fight.

Ortiz has only fought once since his win over Berto and that was his disastrous performance against Mayweather last September. Ortiz didn’t keep his cool when he was having problems finding Mayweather with his shots and instead of sticking with it and focusing on throwing more to the body in order to make contact, Ortiz mentally lost it and headbutted Mayweather in the 4th.

The thing is Ortiz won’t have to worry about connecting with Berto because he’s not hard to hit. Ortiz will just have to be willing to take Berto’s flurries every now and then to get in close. Once Ortiz is on the inside, he’ll dominate again because Berto has minimal skills on the inside. In fact, he’s a really poor fighter when you get near him. That’s what Ortiz needs to do to keep on his feet next time around.