Surgeon's Mayweather report

[The Surgeon]

PRETTY TASTELESS?
OR WAS MAYWEATHER ON THE MONEY?

After sixteen months away from the ring Floyd “Money” Mayweather returned to challenge newly crowned WBC champion “Vicious” Victor Ortiz. The muscular Ortiz, a fighter ten years Mayweather’s junior, won the title in his last bout in a thrilling fight of the year candidate against previously unbeaten Andre Berto. After four rounds of skilful boxing Victor would realise Mayweather was no Berto.


A superbly chiselled Floyd outweighed by a full stone (14 lbs) as the young bull Ortiz put on a staggering 17 lbs between the weigh in and the fight, showed no signs of ring rust from the opening bell. Mayweather previously known for being fleet footed and using the ring adopted a more aggressive game plan for the second fight in a row as he walked the champion down. Southpaw Ortiz sought to attack in quick bursts while Mayweather opted to use less of his stellar left jab and instead went with the lead right, a key punch against southpaws. Mayweather took the opener with his greater accuracy and despite sixteen months on the shelf greater timing. In round two Ortiz landed a few hard body blows and when he pushed Mayweather back tried to make use of his greater bulk and strength, muscling Floyd against the ropes. Mayweather stuck with the lead right, raking Victor with it cleanly and with some regularity. He would roll under and away to his own right immediately after throwing the right, taking away any counter punching opportunities Ortiz may have had. Round two to the challenger, although unofficial HBO judge Harold Lederman scored the round to the champion. Round three began with the thirty four year old Mayweather making use of his left hand, going to work with jabs and hooks. About mid way through the round as both fighters threw, Mayweather connected with a hard right to the jaw that momentarily rocked Ortiz back onto his heels. Victor took the shot well. Ortiz was seemingly happy to move around allowing himself to be backed up only to quickly strike out with combinations at the oncoming Mayweather. Floyd’s defence though even when fighting in this aggressive manner was impeccable and once again little got through as the compubox punch stats would reveal. In what would turn out to be the final round the undefeated veteran quickly opened up on Ortiz tagging him up and down with a combination while Victor tried to tuck up. The champion’s response was to pin “Money” against the ropes and let his hands go. Again Mayweather’s exceptional defence was on show but a few blows landed. The challenger who incidentally entered the ring second, got straight back to walking his man down and landed a couple more lead rights. Champion Ortiz managed to time Mayweather with his pet punch the right hook, a shot that seemed to buzz Floyd a touch with twenty seconds to go in the round. Then came a moment of stupidity from Ortiz as Floyd slipped, blocked and rolled all of Victor’s follow up assault in the corner. He seemingly out of over excitement at having tagged Floyd with his best punch of the fight or frustration at his inability to follow it up, violently and deliberately thrust a hard head butt into Mayweather’s face. A one point deduction followed. Ortiz gave Floyd a hug and even a kiss while he apologised. Mayweather didn’t want to hear it. Referee Joe Cortez motioned the fighters together and said “Lets Go”. It is at this point the controversy happened. Ortiz went for another hug, again trying to apologies for the blatant foul when an angry Mayweather took advantage and tagged his young foe with a left hook right hand combination flush on the jaw KO’ing him. Cortez was talking to what one assumes was the time keeper and actually missed the left hook but saw the right hand and began the count. The count Ortiz failed to make. Now what Floyd did was perfectly legal, in fact he had done the same to both Shane Mosley and Arturo Gatti to lesser effect in previous fights. However it has been called classless and unsportsmanlike by fans and critics alike. Is this the case or as the new champion Mayweather says simply “protect yourself at all times”? The twenty four year old now former champion Ortiz was naive to expect a cold minded veteran like Mayweather to pay him any sporting curtseys and should have followed the old instructions of protecting one’s self at ALL times. A sudden and shocking ending to an entertaining fight. Mayweather’s ruthless business like performance was a far cry from rival Manny Pacquaio’s love-in with Shane Mosley last time out.


Mayweather now 42-0 then got into it with HBO commentator Larry Merchant, feeling disrespected by the eighty year old Merchant he let rip with a verbal tirade calling for Larry to be fired from HBO and lambasting him for his lack of boxing knowledge “You Don’t know **** about boxing!”. Larry fired back “If i was fifty years younger id kick your ass!” as Mayweather tried to exit. This wasn’t the first time the pair have had words on air. Mayweather spoke of a rematch with Ortiz afterwards. Failing that his main option for his next fight, Manny Pacquaio aside would seem like Britain’s Amir Khan. Ortiz who drops to 29-3-2 was apologetic of the head butt afterwards but while he was classy about the controversial KO he clearly felt referee Joe Cortez had let him down with his “miscommunication"