Ortiz-Peterson: Lamont has to put a lot of pressure on Victor to win

By Boxing News - 12/09/2010 - Comments

Image: Ortiz-Peterson: Lamont has to put a lot of pressure on Victor to winBy Dan Ambrose: On Saturday night, #1 ranked WBA/WBO light welterweight contender Victor Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KO’s) will be facing his best opponent since he was stopped in the 6th round last year by Marcos Maidana in June 2009. Ortiz, a big southpaw puncher with power similar to Maidana, has won his last four fights since his loss and has looked good. However, his opposition hasn’t put much pressure on him the way that Maidana did, and this has left Ortiz to dominate with his power and speed. On Saturday, Ortiz will be facing the highly skilled Lamont Peterson (28-1, 14 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Peterson, 26, may not have the ability or the mindset to pressure Ortiz as much as he needs to in order to get the 23-year-old off his game the way that Maidana was able to do. Peterson likes to fight at a slow and deliberate pace, throwing body shots, grunting a lot and admiring his work after throwing. Peterson wastes too much time and isn’t busy enough. He plods slowly forward and likes to work on the inside. He’s not someone that will continuously rush Ortiz all night long the way that Maidana did. Peterson just doesn’t have the power or the killer instinct to fight that way against Ortiz, so I don’t expect him to even try. That really is Peterson’s only shot at beating Ortiz, because he stand no chance of beating him on the inside.

Ortiz won’t just stand there and let Peterson get off his shots in close. Ortiz will stay on the outside and move around. When he does stop to trade, he’ll have big enough power to get the better of Peterson and win most of the exchanges. But Ortiz is powerful enough to take Peterson out if he ramps up his offense in any real way. Peterson was beaten by Timothy Bradley by a 12 round decision last year in December. In that fight, Peterson was staggered multiple times by Bradley, who isn’t a really big puncher. If Bradley was able to hurt Peterson, then there’s good chance that Ortiez will end up taking him out.



Comments are closed.