By Keith Idec
NEW YORK — Lou DiBella doesn’t think Victor Ortiz deserves a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“Why should he get a rematch?,” DiBella asked after a press conference to promote his HBO doubleheader Saturday night in Atlantic City. “He lost every second of every round.”
The conference call Ortiz and promoter Oscar De La Hoya hosted Monday disgusted DiBella, who took particular exception to Ortiz stating that he isn’t interested in a rematch with Andre Berto, whom DiBella promotes. Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs) earned a $2.5 million payday against Mayweather after beating Berto (28-1, 22 KOs) in a “Fight of the Year” candidate that featured both boxers surviving two knockdowns April 16 in Mashantucket, Conn.
“I think it’ll happen because ultimately Ortiz is going to have to do what will make him money,” DiBella said of an Ortiz-Berto rematch. “I understand that Oscar wanted to stand up for his guy, but I don’t think that press call helped him. I think that he came off looking like a kid. He came off the way he came off after the [Marcos] Maidana fight. And I don’t think he’s made a lot of friends. So where’s he going to go for a big-money fight?”
Just as he told BoxingScene.com last week, DiBella reiterated that for an Ortiz-Berto rematch to occur the fighters will have to submit to pre-fight testing for performance-enhancing drugs. Ortiz submitted to those tests before the Mayweather match.
“I’m not pointing the finger at any one fighter, because I can’t prove anything,” DiBella said. “But I’m saying I believe in that as a policy. And how can you criticize me, when I’m saying my fighter should be subjected to the same testing?”
DiBella did accuse Ortiz of some boorish behavior, both during and after his controversial fourth-round knockout loss to Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) in their welterweight title fight Sept. 17 in Las Vegas.
“He should be ashamed of himself,” DiBella said. “He should be ashamed of his interview the other day. He made himself look like a [bleeping] punk. And he should be ashamed of the performance, honestly, because it was the filthiest round I’ve seen fought against a fighter. And if I was Mayweather, I might’ve hit him harder.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, NJ., and BoxingScene.com.
