By Chris Robinson
2012 has produced some telling upsets thus far in the world of boxing and the aftermath of some of the aforementioned defeats is still taking shape.
On Sunday morning I caught up with Ventura, California-based trainer Danny Garcia, who revealed to me that he is no longer working with his former star fighter, Victor Ortiz. The news comes on the heels of Ortiz’s dramatic loss to Josesito Lopez last month in Los Angeles, a fight that Ortiz was winning but one that he would elect not to continue in following the ninth round because of a broken jaw he had suffered.
There apparently was some confusion that took place in the corner on that night inside of Staples Center, as Ortiz told Garcia that he had a broken jaw in the fifth while questioning whether he should continue. Garcia, fully believing that his man was on his way towards victory, talked Ortiz into giving him two more rounds and would make the same plea in seventh.
Ortiz would take all he could handle before making the decision to call things off and it was later revealed that his injury was so severe that he had to have a metal plate with screw inserted into his jaw and will likely be off for about six months.
Last week, Philboxing.com’s Ed de la Vega first made mention of rumors swirling about Ortiz taking displeasure from the way Garcia handled himself in the corner during the Lopez fight and Danny confirmed to me that this is indeed the end of the line for the fighter-trainer tandem.
“I went to Victor’s house, me and my oldest son,” Garcia stated. “We went to talk to him because I feel like he wasn’t doing the things that I told him to do, especially in the last fight against Josesito. He didn’t do the things that I told him to do. He did a little bit of the plan but some things he didn’t do right.”
With Ortiz’s faith in his trainer waning, Garcia pointed out that he too had concern for what he felt was a lack of obedience.
“It looks like he doesn’t have confidence in me, he doesn’t trust me,” Garcia continued. “I told him that ‘I don’t think I’m going to have confidence either; I don’t think I’m going to trust you, because you didn’t listen to me’. It’s better if I go my own way and he can do his own way.”
Garcia’s ride with Ortiz was a rollercoaster in itself, as he had to endure some backlash from his own family after taking in the fighter following Victor’s split from Danny’s younger brother Robert. The duo’s pinnacle came last year when Ortiz scored a thrilling victory over Andre Berto to briefly capture the WBC welterweight championship and Danny stayed classy when discussing some parting words that he had for Ortiz.
“’I will never forget you, because you were my first champion of the world and you gave me a lot of good moments,’” Garcia noted. “He gave me some big, big memories and I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about me because I made him a champion. We’ve got to be friends. We shook hands, he gave me a hug, but we decided to stop doing business together.”