by David P. Greisman

“I screwed up.”

“I made a mistake, and it cost me.”

“I’ve learned my lesson, and now I need to earn your respect back.”

“I need to work my way back. I need to show that I deserve another shot.”

That’s what we wanted to hear from Victor Ortiz. It’s what we should’ve heard from him after his knockout loss against Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s what he should’ve said about how he intentionally head-butted Mayweather multiple times, how he bulled his head against Mayweather’s face throughout the bout, how he blatantly launched himself off the canvas, leading with his head and drawing blood from Mayweather’s mouth.

We wanted him to say that he lost his cool first and his focus next, that he apologized more than he needed to, that he forgot he was in a fight, that the referee had told him to get back to boxing and yet he’d left his hands down and his chin exposed.

Instead we got fingers pointed at Mayweather, at referee Joe Cortez, at the Nevada State Athletic Commission, but never at Ortiz himself. Joining the 24-year-old fighter on a media conference call last week were his manager, Rolando Arellano, and his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya.

It seemed a desperate, misguided attempt intended not only to rewrite what had happened, but also to change the course of what is to come.

They justified Ortiz using his head.

Arellano: “Victor Ortiz basically did what he had to do to defend himself and get everyone’s attention … He [Mayweather] hit him with the elbows first, then the head butts came.”

De La Hoya: “Ortiz’s camp was warning Cortez about the elbows. We saw at least 10, 15 elbows during that fight coming from Floyd. There’s pictures where Floyd has his elbow on Ortiz’s face, and Cortez [is] looking at that elbow in his face. He [Cortez] must’ve had an off night.”

Ortiz: “In the second round I took two to the right eyebrow, and I yelled to Cortez, ‘Elbow, elbow,’ and he [said] to keep fighting through it.”

They painted Mayweather’s knockout punches as improper.

Ortiz:  “That was a cheap shot.”

Arellano: “When Victor was apologizing, what he was doing, he was displaying the highest standard of sportsmanlike conduct. ‘Yes, I did something wrong. … Please forgive me. It won’t happen again.’ Like a gentleman with honor should do. And while he was displaying that high standard of conduct, basically Floyd Mayweather was displaying the lowest, because he took advantage of a situation where he knew that was probably the only way he was going to get out of that fight alive.”

De La Hoya: “We saw bad sportsmanship end the fight.”

And they made their case for a rematch.

Ortiz: “I had the upper hand in that fight. I personally think he was fearing the fact that I was coming. Round after round, I was getting stronger. He was getting weaker. His punches weren’t fazing me.”

De La Hoya: “Victor was landing punches. Victor was coming on to Mayweather. Mayweather was not going to knock him out. It was only the fourth round. That’s all it was. A fighter that’s Victor’s age just starts warming up. … Victor was coming on strong. … And we were cheated from a great fight happening.”

Arellano: “If he doesn’t give us a rematch, then his legacy will be tainted and [tarnished] by the cheap shot for the rest of his life. … In 100 years, when they say, ‘Man, he could’ve been the greatest in the world,’ or ‘He was the greatest,’ I’m going to say ‘No no no,’ because you never knew the outcome of the Victor Ortiz fight.”

The reality is that Mayweather’s knockout punches – the left hook and right cross – came because of Ortiz’s fouls.

Their fantasy is that Ortiz’s blatant fouls were retaliation for elbows that apparently nobody else noticed.

The reality is that Ortiz head-butted Mayweather because Mayweather was taking over, and Ortiz resorted to fouling, seeking to assert himself as still dangerous.

Their fantasy is that Mayweather punched Ortiz following the third apology because he felt threatened and was desperate to get rid of Ortiz.

The reality is that Cortez had instructed Mayweather and Ortiz to start fighting again, that Mayweather and Ortiz had then moved to the center of the ring, and that Ortiz had chosen that moment to apologize for the third time for his foul.

The way the fight ended was cheap – that’s not how anyone would hope for a fight to conclude – but it didn’t end on a cheap shot.

The momentum could’ve swung in the later rounds back to Ortiz, but it’s Ortiz who never gave himself that opportunity.

He should be angry and disappointed about the loss. He should be passionate about rebuilding his career. He should be the fighter who recognized that he needed to disprove those who doubted him after he mentally caved against Marcos Maidana. He should be the fighter who reestablished himself by beating Andre Berto, a victory that landed him the Mayweather fight.

He’d sounded so carefree immediately after the knockout, more in disbelief than disappointed. It’s hard to judge a man by his words and actions immediately after his brains are scrambled, but Ortiz seemed, over the next week, to be disconnected with reality. He said the head butts were accidental, then admitted they were intentional. His team said it wouldn’t formally protest the loss, then scheduled a conference call to make their case in the court of public opinion.

The loudest voices on the line belonged to Arellano and De La Hoya, two men charged with guiding Ortiz’s career, getting him the biggest fights and the biggest paydays. They should’ve told Ortiz that his case would be best made with actions – not with pointed fingers, but with clenched fists.

The 10 Count

1.  Getting boxing away from Las Vegas and into largely untapped markets is a two-sided transaction: promoters need to put on quality cards and step up their efforts in marketing them, and then fans need to come out in force and reward the promoters for doing so.

It’s long confounded us in the Washington, D.C., area just how rarely the big-time boxing card comes here. We had Riddick Bowe vs. Jesse Ferguson in 1993 (with Roy Jones vs. Bernard Hopkins on the undercard), and then it took another dozen years until Mike Tyson fought Kevin McBride in 2005.

That’s been it of late, aside from the stray “Friday Night Fights” card.

And so it’s a break from convention that Golden Boy Promotions chose D.C. as the site of Amir Khan’s fight in December against Lamont Peterson.

It’s not at all far-fetched, though: Peterson is from here, the area has a sizable Muslim population, and the region enjoys coming out for the big sporting “event” – the Washington Wizards’ best attendance came in the two losing seasons in which Michael Jordan was playing for the team.

Now the promoters – and especially the fighters – need to do their jobs, getting out there on local television and radio, speaking to local media both big and small, in print and online, and perhaps even airing commercials in front of captive audiences at Washington Redskins and Washington Capitals games.

Then folks need to show up. This is the 7th most populous metropolitan area in the United States, according to census figures – and just down the road from the 20th most populous (Baltimore) and within a few hours of the 5th most populous (Philadelphia) and 43rd (Richmond, Va.).

2.  The UFC took advantage of D.C. this past Saturday, airing a broadcast for free on cable and yet still drawing an announced attendance of 9,380, according to MMAjunkie.com.

Here’s the difference between UFC and boxing: The UFC invests in its audience for the long-term, while boxing more often than not sees its ticket buyers as nothing other than the source of an occasional but sizable jackpot.

That UFC card had a total gate of $706,775, or an average of about $75 per person in attendance. Victor Ortiz’s fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., meanwhile, had an announced attendance of 14,687 and an actual attendance of 14,632, with 13,364 tickets sold and 1,268 given away. The fight wasn’t even a sellout, with 3,052 tickets going unsold, according to numerous news reports.

And yet the fight brought in $9 million on the dot, the 14th largest live gate ever in Las Vegas, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. That was an average of $615 per person in attendance, or, more importantly, $673 per ticket sold.

Which event do you think was more accessible to the common fan – the kind of fan who’d want to spend more money on MMA or boxing again soon? Which event left those common fans with more money to do just that?

Sure, Ortiz-Mayweather made lots of money for Mayweather in particular, as well as Ortiz, the cable systems, casinos, HBO and Golden Boy Promotions. Even the undercard fighters who opened the pay-per-view broadcast got the kind of money that those in comparable positions on a UFC show would never see.

But by getting outside of Vegas and in major metropolitan area after major metropolitan area, and by not gouging its fan base, the UFC is cementing its long-term viability, both locally for future shows, pay-per-views and merchandise sales, and globally by focusing on consumer confidence, in making sure fans know they will get their money’s worth.

3.  When was the last time boxing pulled in a sizable crowd in some of the United States’ larger cities? Heck, when was the last time boxing held a major card in some of these places?

In the past couple of years the UFC drew crowds of 16,404 in Auburn Hills, Mich.; 16,344 in Denver; 15,811 in Indianapolis; 14,168 in Boston; 13,896 in Memphis; 13,741 in Seattle; 8,319 in Louisville; 8,132 in San Diego; 7,792 in Pittsburgh; 7,700 in Charlotte; 7,112 in New Orleans and 6,751 in Milwaukee.

Some of these numbers are announced attendance and some are confirmed attendance, including free tickets. Some are for major shows, while some are for lesser cards. All of these figures are via MMA junkie.com.

U F C will be able to return to these cities, much in the same way that WWE is able to tour the country and pack in the crowds.

I enjoy boxing. I enjoy mixed martial arts. I want both to succeed. And that’s why it’s maddening to know that while boxing promoters and networks have the disadvantage of being in competition with each other – unlike the market domination that UFC and WWE have in their respective industries – there’s still so much more they can do that they just aren’t doing.

4.  Beyond marketing, pricing and guaranteeing a good show – three major things – there is the idea of giving the fans something to be invested in.

Boxing’s done that on occasion with local stars, putting, say, Rocky Juarez and Juan Diaz on doubleheaders in their native Houston, or even taking advantage of ethnicity with Tomasz Adamek drawing in those of Polish background in Newark, N.J., and Miguel Cotto filling Madison Square Garden in New York City with his Puerto Rican faithful.

These fighters become “our” guys, much in the same way I will say “We won” when talking this week about the Washington Redskins.

There’s also the patchwork method: some will come for the main event, and some will come specifically to support local fighters the promoters wisely include on the undercard. Largely lower-tier, these fighters nevertheless have pockets of vocal fans who paid for tickets and traveled there for them, even if the fight isn’t competitive. And perhaps it’s better at times for the fight not to be competitive, as those fans then go out and party and go home happy.

For the rest of us there for the card in its entirety, though, a non-competitive undercard, be it one with local guys winning via massacre or one with the promoters’ prospects padding their records, makes for a dreary undercard.

Next time UFC is on, tune in to the early preliminary bouts airing on Facebook or Spike TV, give the crowd a look and a listen, then ask yourself how little you’ve heard such a thing toward the start of a boxing card.

5.  Conventional wisdom in the past said that boxing fans these days don’t care what’s on the undercard, that their purchase is only based on the main event. That conventional wisdom came before the explosion of high-quality, illegal Internet streams of just about anything and everything: boxing, m ixed m artial arts, professional wrestling, soccer, football and non-stop marathons of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

Again, much about boxing is a two-way transaction. And so boxing fans should show their support for the addition of Pawel Wolak vs. Delvin Rodriguez (a rematch of one of the best fights of 2011) to December’s pay-per-view rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.

The undercard to Cotto-Margarito 2, should it hold up, looks to be a good one: lightweight beltholder Brandon Rios will face an as-yet-undetermined opponent, Wolak will presumably go back to war with Rodriguez, and welterweight contender Mike Jones will face the resurgent Sebastian Lujan.

It’s entirely possible that promoters could chalk up a good buy rate for the pay-per-view to the strong storyline and fan bases behind the main event. But it could also tell them that it really is worth giving the viewers a good show for the entire evening, and that it’s worth paying the money necessary, for example, to get Wolak and Rodriguez back in the ring with each other.

6.  Of course, so much of matchmaking is contingent on the fighters’ promotional situations. It helps that Wolak is with Top Rank and that Rodriguez’s promoter, Star Boxing, has to turn to the larger promoters in order to get Rodriguez more significant fights and more significant paydays.

Everything remains about risk and reward. We likely won’t see Top Rank allowing Miguel Cotto or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to step in the ring with Sergio Martinez (who is with Lou DiBella). Saul Alvarez of Golden Boy Promotions brings enough money to the table, though, that it’d be more worth it to Top Rank to cash out with a bout between Chavez Jr. against Alvarez.

Similarly, a pair of the prospective opponents we’ve heard named for future Martinez fights are guys also under DiBella’s promotional banner: Andy Lee or Matthew Macklin is more likely to be next than, say, Felix Sturm or Dmitry Pirog.

It won’t happen, but I’d like to see Martinez face Arthur Abraham, who is coming off three losses in his last four fights and has said he’ll be returning to the middleweight division. Abraham has the same kind of high guard that gave Martinez trouble this past Saturday against Darren Barker, and he also attracts a sizable crowd in Germany.

7.  The Desert Sun, a newspaper in Palm Springs, Calif., Sept. 30: “ ‘I’m just so happy. I don’t know what to say man. I’m so excited,’ Bradley said in an exclusive interview with The Desert Sun.”

RingTV.com’s Twitter account, Sept. 30: “Exclusive with Tim Bradley re: Pacquiao, Casamayor, Top Rank.”

Wrong on both counts, gentlemen.

8.  Boxers Behaving Badly update: Featherweight prospect Matt Remillard pleaded no contest last week to a charge of first-degree assault for allegedly attacking another man with a baseball bat in January 2010, according to the Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

Remillard told police he used his fists, not a bat. Two other people were also accused of striking the victim, who “needed seven plates and 30 screws for two skull fractures after the attack … and one plate and eight screws for the fractures in his left hand,” the newspaper said.

Remillard has a sentencing hearing scheduled for Nov. 29. The newspaper said he “is expected to go to prison for five years.”

The 25-year-old last fought in March, a technical knockout loss to Miguel Garcia. Remillard is 23-1 (13 knockouts).

9.  A gossip columnist at the Las Vegas Review-Journal claims sources told him that Floyd Mayweather parked diagonally across two handicapped spaces outside of a bank, leading to him being “confronted twice by men who objected to the boxer’s parking choice.”

No word on whether Mayweather only did it because Larry Merchant was trying to park there…

10.  “I will fight for $10,000,” Kelly Pavlik apparently told his manager, Cameron Dunkin, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “It’s not about money. I really want to do this.”

Victor Ortiz, in a statement released by his manager, Rolando Arellano, said this of his desire for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.: “If he does want to give us the rematch, to show that it’s not for the money, we will do it for free.”
 
Kelly Pavlik will fight for $10,000. Victor Ortiz will fight for free. And both of those are more far-fetched than the idea of Mike Tyson actually being skinny, vegan and happy…

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.

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